On 15 April 2018, thanks to JNF UK* and KKL-JNF, a unique concert took place in Jerusalem, the capital of the Jewish nation, where this music was played to the public for the first time.
Watch VOD from the concert below!
Music rescued from the depths of the past, performed to inspire the future of the Jewish people.
Amidst the horrors of the concentration camps of the Holocaust, musicians kept playing and secretly composing. We know from the people and documents that survived that they composed in the hope that their music would some day be played again in a spirit that celebrated life and the defiant survival of the Jewish people.
For more than three decades, Maestro Francesco Lotoro scoured the world looking for the hidden manuscripts and memories of the survivors, piecing together this precious musical testimony. The majority of the music is surprisingly joyful, despite the desperate circumstances in which it was composed and the likelihood that it would never be discovered.
More than just a concert
Francesco’s work has already been the subject of a successful feature length documentary, The Maestro. He has made it his life’s work to find, research, orchestrate and most importantly perform works written in the camps, and has travelled the world uncovering compositions by both survivors and also those who perished.
The Notes of Hope concert will be held in the prestigious International Convention Centre in Jerusalem, known as Binyanei HaUma. It will also be filmed for a possible future broadcast. This historical event will be immortalised in a beautiful recording, allowing future generations to appreciate it.
World Leadership Conference
The Notes of Hope Concert will be taking place against the backdrop of the biennale KKL-JNF World Leadership Conference (WLC 2018), with a special focus on
Israel's 70th anniversary together with KKL-JNF's 117th anniversary. The WLC 2018 will plot the direction of KKL-JNF in Israel and around the world for the coming years.
* JNF Charitable Trust (JNF UK) is a wholly independent legal entity registered in England and Wales and with the UK Charity Commission. It operates completely separate with its own Board of Directors and Management.