Future Memories: Lotoro's journey in search of music written in concentration camps has landed in New York

Francesco Lotoro in conferenza alla NY University

Francesco Lotoro 's journey in search of music composed in concentration camps and other places of civilian and military captivity around the world stops in New York . 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 Tiritiello, vice president of the ILMC Foundation.

On April 24, Lotoro participated as a pianist and speaker at the conference "Sounds of Captivity. Music by Italian Military Prisoners during WW2" at New York University (Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò). The conference was part of a series of events organized by Elena Bellina (New York University) and Giorgia Alù (University of Sydney), co-sponsored by NYU, the University of Sydney, the John D. Calandra Institute for Italian American Studies, and the Center for Italian Modern Art, on the musical production of Italian prisoners held in Germany.

In the days that followed, he conducted further research on Jewish musicians deported during World War II at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research and the New York Public Library; this round of research led to the acquisition of rare musical works by Arno Nadel (killed in Birkenau) and Sam Englander (killed in Sobibor), which had long been thought to be missing.

In the photos: Francesco Lotoro's lecture at New York University; research at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research; photographic portraits of musicians Arno Nadel and Sam Englander