From Puglia to the world: Francesco Lotoro on an international tour with concentrationary music

The Barletta-based Foundation Institute of Musical Literature Concentration Camps —the custodian of a vast archive of music composed in concentration camps and other places of civilian and military captivity between 1933 and 1953, recovered by pianist Francesco Lotoro over 31 years of research—has organized a series of concerts, conducted by Maestro Lotoro himself, to be held in major cities around the world . The series begins on November 6th in Canada at the Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto , where the concert “Music and Art – Living Memory” will take place. The concert will be held during Toronto's Holocaust Education Week (a week dedicated to raising awareness of the Holocaust), and will feature Lotoro , Benjamin Z. Maissner (renowned cantor at Holy Blossom Temple), violinist Moshe Hammer, cellist Igor Gefter , and a youth orchestral ensemble.

The long-standing friendship between the Barletta Foundation and Brazil is the basis of four concerts scheduled in the city of São Paulo on November 17, 19, 20, and 21, respectively, at the Anna Frank Theater of the Clube Israelita A Hebraica, the Synagogue Theater – Israeli Paulista Congregation, the Brazilian headquarters of the KKL (Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael), and the Simon Bolivar Auditorium of the Latin America Memorial. “O Maestro. Em Busca de Ultima Musica” (The Maestro. In Search of the Last Music): this is the title of the program in tribute to the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the concentration camps. Performing it will be the Orquestra Jazz Sinfonica with Maestro Francesco Lotoro in the dual role of pianist and conductor, baritone Angelo De Leonardis , tenor Nico Sette , and soprano Anna Maria Stella Pansini .

During the four evenings scheduled in São Paulo, Brazil, the major project for the Citadel of Concentrationary Music, to be built in Barletta, will be presented to Latin American authorities and the financial world. The concerts in São Paulo, which will be covered and broadcast by the most important national television stations in Brazil and Portugal, are organized by Keren Kayemet LeIsrael (the largest Jewish organization in the world) and the largest Jewish organizations in Brazil to mark the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp, which will fall on January 27, 2020, but for which commemorative events have already begun around the world.

The series of concerts concludes in Israel on November 28th, at the Binyaney Haouma - International Convention Center in Jerusalem , where the third edition of the Concierto por la Paz will be held, dedicated to the 71st anniversary of the demilitarization of Costa Rica.