Future Memories: Lotoro's journey in search of music written in concentration camps continues in Italy

Fondazione ILMC
Dec 4, 2023
2 min read

Francesco Lotoro a Pesaro con il ricercatore Roberto Malini

Francesco Lotoro's journey in search of music composed in concentration camps and other places of civilian and military captivity around the world continues in Italy. The project "Future Memories: Lotoro's Journey to Save the Lost Music," of which this journey is also part, is promoted by the Fondazione Istituto di Letteratura Musicale Concentrazionaria ETS and supported by the Claims Conference (New York), the Puglia Region, the Rothschild Foundation Hanadiv Europe (London), the Righteous Persons Foundation (Los Angeles), and the Fondation pour la Mémoire de la Shoah (Paris) . The journey was undertaken together with Grazia Tirititiello, vice president of the ILMC Foundation.

The first destination was Bologna , where the Used Book Fair was taking place and offered an opportunity to purchase books of crucial importance for this research at discounted prices. In-depth research was then conducted on the Jewish composer Mario Finzi and all of his musical works were recovered.

In the photos: Francesco Lotoro at the Bologna Used Book Fair; a photographic portrait of the composer Mario Finzi

The next stop was Milan , where research was carried out at the G. Verdi Conservatory Library on the Ukrainian Jewish composer Petro Yevhenovych Topciy (arrested by the Soviet police and imprisoned in the Gulag, he had studied at the Milan Conservatory).

On that day, we met Giovanni and Deborah Frisone . Giovanni is the son of painter and illustrator Ferruccio Francesco Frisone, who was captured by German troops in Durrës after the armistice of September 8, 1943. He kept a diary during his internment and created 120 drawings on notebook paper and cardstock using pencils and watercolors. Giovanni and Deborah donated the manuscript of his diary and 113 of his father's drawings to the ILMC Foundation.

The last day of the trip was in Pesaro , where a meeting took place with researcher Roberto Malini , who handed over 14 paintings by persecuted Lithuanian Jewish artists.