Forbidden Music Regained


Leo Smit Stichting
Search this site

About this project

Forbidden Music Regained is a project by the Leo Smit Foundation (overall coordination Eleonore Pameijer and Carine Alders).

Based in Amsterdam, the Leo Smit Foundation is a knowledge centre open to anyone who wants to know more about composers who were persecuted in the Second World War. Because of their situation their work has sunk into oblivion, yet in many cases they were the musical leaders of their time. The Leo Smit Foundation is dedicated to the discovery and research of these composers and to the publication of their works, in collaboration with editors and other partners. Our aim is to make the lives, work and context of these composers accessible to all. With our international contacts, we also act as a knowledge broker for persons and organizations working on the same material.

Music is intended to be heard. We encourage the performance of works by persecuted composers and we very actively spread the repertoire. We have a group of musicians who have become very knowledgeable in this area and specialized in the repertoire. Under the title of the Leo Smit Ensemble they regularly give concerts at top venues in the Netherlands and other countries. We actively encourage the inclusion of this repertoire in concert programs at home and abroad.

We started in 1996 with research on the composer Leo Smit. For the tenth anniversary of the Foundation a book was published with short biographies of ten composers in all. In 2009 a further inventory was completed and published in Dutch under the title: “Schatten van de zolder; verloren en teruggevonden Nederlandse composities” (Treasures from the attic; a rediscovery of Dutch composers). Since then we have documented the lives and work of more than 35 Dutch composers.

Read more on our publications and concerts on leosmit.org