The OREL Foundation

Mission and Vision

The OREL Foundation

  • Founded by James Conlon, one of the most important and successful advocates for the music of composers suppressed by the Nazis, and Professor Michael Beckerman of New York University, a leading researcher on the music of that period
  • Maintains the world’s most valued web site on the topic of music suppressed by the Nazis
  • Encourages the performance of this music by professional and pre-professional musicians
  • Serves as a major resource through its web site and through consultation for musicians and organizations seeking information and guidance in the preparation of programs featuring music by suppressed composers
  • Raises awareness in the academic community of the importance of these composers in the history of twentieth-century music
  • Provides lectures and multi-media programs, often with live music, for organizations and institutions
  • Constantly seeks new ways to bring greater attention to the music, lives and influence of composers suppressed by the Nazis

 

Mission

The mission of The OREL Foundation is to encourage interest in and, especially, the performance of works by composers suppressed as a result of Nazi policies from 1933 to 1945 in order to allow the greater musical community of today and tomorrow the opportunity to determine the place of these composers and their works in the history and canon of twentieth-century music.

This mission will be accomplished through a variety of means including performance, research, teaching, conferences, public lectures, publications and other media, as well as the most resourceful web site in the English language.

Vision

In the decades to come, the repertoire of opera companies, orchestras, chamber music and solo recital performances will be significantly enhanced by the addition of masterworks of the first half of the twentieth century that had been relatively unknown to musicians and music lovers since the end of the Second World War.  The names and works of composers such as Alexander Zemlinsky, Franz Schreker, Erwin Schulhoff, Viktor Ullmann and others will be as well known as the names of many twentieth-century composers whose names and works were more or less exempt from the repressive policies within the Nazi sphere of influence.