How might the musical language of in Western Europe have evolved in the twentieth century if so many young composers had not been stopped from working, forced into exile or killed by the Nazis? This is a subject that is now being addressed with increasing intensity world-wide. The aim of the JMI International Centre for Suppressed Music (ICSM) is to re-examine the work of composers whose careers were affected: to recover music suppressed by totalitarian regimes and later neglected, to restore, publish, perform and record the music. ICSM is also collecting an archive of interviews with surviving composers, musicians, their families and friends as well as manuscripts, scores and other documents showing how composers and musicians tackled both their musical and their political challenges.

Latest news

Barry Humphries salutes the work of Michael Haas in recovering music neglected in the Nazi era
at a JMI reception and dinner at the home of Lady Solti 19 May 2009.

To read about the event, click here.

‘It took Hitler twelve years to remove some of Europe’s most important composers and generations to try and put them back into place'

click here to read Michael Haas full response to wining this prize.

Click here to read about and donate to The Spoli Fund.

Forthcoming performances of Suppressed Music:

Saturday 7 November, 7.30pm
Vienna to New York: C20th Jewish choral and orchestral masterpieces from Europe and America
Nicholas Collon and Aurora Orchestra
The culmination of an ongoing series of concerts exploring nineteenth- and twentieth-century Jewish music, this performance features choral and orchestral repertoire which sets outstanding gems by Copland, Schoenberg and Weill alongside lesser-known masterpieces by Zemlinsky and Korngold, as well as more recent works by Osvaldo Golijov and Joseph Finlay.
Copland In the Beginning
Finlay My Heart is in the East
Golijov K'Varakat
Korngold Much Ado about Nothing
Schoenberg Friede auf Erden
Weill Berliner Requiem
Zemlinsky Minnelied
Zemlinsky Psalm 23
Cadogan Hall, London
 £25 / £20 / £15
www.cadoganhall.com  020 7730 4500.

Vienna to Weimar:
27 – 30 January 2010

To hear Christian Immler, along with the Aurora Orchestra and the Artis Quartet of Vienna perform this repertoire again, watch out for a series at Kings Place, 27 – 30 January 2010 entitled From Vienna to Weimar featuring some wonderful and little known, chamber, vocal and orchestral music by composers of the early 20th century including Eisler, Gàl, Goldschmidt, Korngold, Schreker, Wellesz, Weill and Zemlinsky.  This programme is curated by Nick Collon and the Aurora Orchestra with Erik Levi and Lloyd Moore of the JMI International Centre for Suppressed Music as artistic advisors.

For Details and booking www.kingsplace.co.uk

The International Centre for Suppressed Music (ICSM)

Read the ISCM Online Journal
launched August 2005, continually updated with articles, reviews, listings and obituaries

Read the ICSM Newsletters 1-7  (2001 - 2004)

last modified: 22 July 2005