NEW YORK (CelebrityAccess) – American classical music publishing house G. Schirmer (part of Wise Music Group [WMG]) has signed an agreement with Exilarte Center for Banned Music in Vienna, Austria. Exilarte is the leading center for the restoration, preservation, and publication of composers banned by Hitler’s regime during World World II.
Exilarte was founded in 2006 as an association to address the preservation of music that had been suppressed by the Nazi regime and became a fully accredited research center and archive in 2016. It sits on the University of Music and Performing Arts campus in Vienna.
Exilarte’s senior researcher Dr. Michael Haas — the Grammy Award-winning classical music producer and author of Forbidden Music: The Jewish Composers Banned by the Nazis, says, “When Exilarte was a society, we had no archive facilities. With the inauguration of its association with the University of Music and Performing Arts, Exilarte became more deeply involved in acquiring, archiving, and preserving the estates of banned composers.”
With the partnership, more than 400 musical works (over 300 songs, 100 chamber music works, 50 orchestral works, several vocal and stage works, and numerous film scores) will be published. G. Schirmer will act as the publisher for all works restored by Exilarte and, via WMG’s foundation, will provide monetary support to Exilarte to guarantee the continued restoration, preservation, and publication of composers’ works banned during the 1930s and 1940s.
Robert Thompson, president of G. Schirmer/Wise Music, says, “We at Schirmer and Wise Music Group are especially honored today. Exilarte has been a beacon of light since 2006 as the leading institution in locating, restoring, and making available musical works by composers lost during the Holocaust. Their work is vital, precious, and honorable, ensuring that these composers who were silenced during World War II are not forgotten, their legacies restored, and their musical works brought to the public for the first time in performances and recordings. Through our partnership with Exilarte, our goal is to continue and expand upon their mission of restoring, preserving, and disseminating the work of composers whose lives, work, and artistry were tragically cut short.”
One exile who survived and flourished in America was composer Walter Arlen. He settled in Los Angeles, where he founded Loyola Marymount University’s music program and served as a critic at the Los Angeles Times for 30 years. In 2008, the very first recordings devoted to Arlen’s songs and piano works, produced by Haas under Exilarte’s auspices, were released by Gramola Records. A new recording of his orchestral/choral work, Song of Songs, will be released in 2023.
Now 102 years old and residing in Santa Monica, Arlen says he anticipates that the new association between Exilarte and G. Schirmer will increase exposure for his work: “…I feel honored that they have come to me and want to do something with my music.”
Musical Estates Held by Exilarte
Ferdinand Adler
Walter Arlen
Anita Bild
Walter Bricht
Theo Buchwald
Julius Bürger
Marta Eggerth
Robert Freistadtl (Frey)
Richard Fuch
Hans Gál
Robert Fürstensaal
Wilhellm Grosz
David Grünschlag
Richard Hoffmann
Hugo Kauder
Jan Kiepura
Erich Wolfgang Korngold
Gustav Lewis
Egon Lustgarten
Maria Piscator
Erwin Piscator
Eric Sander
André Singer
Walter Susskind
Richard Tauber/Mary Losseff
Georg Tintner
Jan Urban
Eduard Van Clef
Hans Winterberg
Walter Wurzburger
