LOST MUSIC OF AUSCHWITZ | Constella Music

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The Lost Music of Auschwitz

Commencing in 2015, The Lost Music of Auschwitz is Constella’s major project focused on restoring and performing long-forgotten music written by prisoners in Auschwitz.

Dr. Leo Geyer has worked extensively in the archives of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum to piece together fragments of musical manuscripts, enabling this lost music to be heard once more.

Constella initiated the project to engage the public in commemorating 80 years since the liberation of Auschwitz. The project has led to a variety of outcomes, including an opera-ballet production, a radio programme, and a documentary film, resulting in worldwide media coverage.

One of the manuscripts in the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum

The opera-ballet

In June 2015, Constella Music premiered a new opera-ballet production, created in collaboration with acclaimed choreographer Claudia Schreier. Featuring singers, dancers, and instrumentalists on stage, the production harnesses the expressive power of song, movement, and music to reveal the truth about the prisoner orchestras of Auschwitz.

Rather than follow a traditional narrative arc, the production unfolds through a series of vignettes, each capturing astonishing and deeply emotional moments where music became a source of defiance, solace, or grief. These include marching songs embedded with hidden messages for fellow inmates, a sorrowful piece arranged and performed by the women’s orchestra, and a lullaby that clings to the distant memory of home and children.

This 80min work is the culmination of 10 years of research, bringing together some of the profound stories and music from the orchestras of Auschwitz. Following the premiere at the Bloomsbury Theatre in London's West End, Constella is currently preparing to tour the production in Europe and America.

Documentary-film

Produced by Windfall Productions for Sky Arts, the documentary-film The Lost Music of Auschwitz, follows Dr Leo Geyer in the restoration process featuring performances by Constella Music.

The documentary aired in January 2025 receiving widespread critical acclaim - “extraordinary” (The Independent), “groundbreaking” (The Daily Express),

“profoundly moving” (Financial Times). The Lost Music of Auschwitz has recently been nominated for a Digital Broadcast Award.

STREAM ON SKY

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Radio Programme

Produced by Peanut & Crumb for BBC Radio 4, the radio programme Orchestras of Auschwitz, presented by Dr Leo Geyer, explores the prisoner ensembles and features a concert performance by Constella Music at Opera North.

STREAM ON BBC SOUNDS

Concerts

Constella Music first performed music from Auschwitz in a concert at Sadler's Wells, London, on November 27, 2023. The performance received global news coverage, including features on CNN, The Washington Post, The Times, Mediaset (Italian televised news), CBC/Radio-Canada, NRK (Norwegian Radio), and ITV News.

Since then, Constella has presented lecture-recitals in Paris at the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire du Judaïsme, in Amsterdam at the Nationaal Holocaustmuseum, and in Leeds at Opera North.

Recording

As part of its fundraising efforts for the opera-ballet production, Constella Music recorded the first-ever performance of Kołysanka (Lullaby) by Adam Kopycinski, composed while he was imprisoned in Auschwitz in 1941. The piece was performed by award-winning concert pianist Mateusz Borowiak.

Constella is currently seeking financial support to produce an album featuring all the musical restorations from Auschwitz that Dr. Leo Geyer has undertaken. This project will enable audiences around the world to hear this music to further Holocaust commemoration and learning.

Publications

To enable this music to be heard, Constella Music has published the sheet music of various compositions, including Adam Kopycinski's Lullaby for piano and Geyer's Homage to Jakub Segar for solo violin. For more, click here.

All publications can also be found on Nkoda.