NEWS Bringing Music Back to Life

By Adam Smulevich

Francesco Lotoro is not just a pianist. His life mission is to collect, listen to and archive all the music that was composed and played in concentration camps. Classical, symphonic, jazz, klezmer, cabaret: a vast range of styles. Uncovering suppressed works, Lotoro wants to bring back to life “a cultural heritage for all humanity”.

The monumental and meaningful research he has conducted in the past years will be presented during an international concert, “Tutto ciò che mi resta” (“All That Remains”) promoted by the Union of Italian Jewish Communities (UCEI) for the upcoming Holocaust Remembrance Day.

“Nazis and Fascists brought pain and death all over Europe and tried to destroy the memory of these artists. But the memory is indelible and their art is still clearly speaking to all of us,” said Renzo Gattegna, the president of the UCEI.

The concert, that will take place tonight in Rome in the prestigious Parco della Musica, is supported by the President of the Republic and by the Committee for Celebrations in memory of the Holocaust of the Italian government. It is organized by BrainCircleItalia and MusaDoc in collaboration with the National Academy of Santa Cecilia and Fondazione Musica per Roma with the support of DocLab / Intergea and The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Among the artists performing will be Ute Lemper, a German singer known for her interpretation of the works of Kurt Weill, as well as the violinist Francesca Dego.