Unbeknownst to many, it turns out that far more music was composed in camps prior to and throughout the war. An article in yesterday’s Le Monde (in French, hélas) recounts the mission of Francesco Lotoro, an Italian Jewish pianist and conductor who for over 17 years has been searching for and organizing all of the music written in internment and concentration camps between 1933 and 1945. (Earlier articles in English on the subject can be found here and here.) Considering himself a “smuggler” who is passing this music to the world outside the camps, so far he has collected 4,000 pieces, including everything from cabaret to operetta to sacred music.
