Michael Haas on the composers and musicians, persecuted by Hitler, who shaped the soundscape of the last century.

How did composers and musicians persecuted by Hitler go on to shape the soundscape of the last century?

Some fled Germany, navigating xenophobia and entirely different creative terrain. Others were forced to create under a ruthless dictatorship or in concentration camps and ghettos.

In The Music of Exile Michael Haas sensitively records the story of this musical diaspora, torn between old and new worlds, from the musicians interned as enemy aliens in the UK to the Hollywood compositions of Erich Wolfgang Korngold and Kurt Weill’s stage work. The Exilarte Centre co-founder, previously music curator at Vienna’s Jewish Museum, talks with classical music writer Jessica Duchen.

Buy a copy of Music of Exile by Michael Haas.

This event will last approximately 1 hour, without an interval. 

About the speakers:

Michael Haas is senior researcher, cofounder, and chair of the Exilarte Centre in Vienna, where he studies and archives music suppressed by National Socialism. He is the author of Forbidden Music and was formerly music curator at Vienna’s Jewish Museum.

Jessica Duchen is a music critic, author and librettist. She contributes to The Sunday Times, the i and BBC Music Magazine and her operatic work includes Silver Birch and Dalia with Roxanna Panufnik for Garsington Opera. She has written biographies of Korngold and Fauré and seven novels on music-related topics, most recently Immortal, about Beethoven’s Immortal Beloved. Her narrated concerts have been performed at Wigmore Hall, Kings Place and numerous festivals.