The Terezín Festival of Forbidden Music

is a partner festival of the International Festival of Forbidden Music, which came into being through the initiative of the Association for the Austrian Cultural Forum attached to the Austrian Consulate-General in Marseilles, in cooperation with the Austrian Cultural Forum in Paris and the Marseille City Opera.

The leading figure of the International Festival is Michel Pastore (France), the cultural attaché at the Austrian Consulate-General, who is currently the artistic director of the International Festival of Forbidden Music.

Since 2004 the Festival has campaigned for the revival and rehabilitation of important works and artists that were forbidden by the Third Reich. It also aims to expand its activity to include all artists and their work that suffered persecution under totalitarian systems, especially in the field of music. In addition to producing artistic works, the Festival is also engaged in teaching activities and raising public awareness.

In 2007 the Austrian Cultural Forum and the Austrian Consulate-General started to work with a Czech partner, Česká kultura. The first joint project involved a concert performed in Marseille and Terezín in July 2007, at which works were presented by composers who had been persecuted in France (Eric Itor Kahn, Norbert Glanzberg, and Kurt Weill), especially in the Milles concentration camp (where Kahn was interned), and in Terezín (Hans Krása).

The idea of working together with other countries (Romania – Bucharest 2008) led to the establishment of a stable International Festival of Forbidden Music, based so far on cooperation between the countries mentioned above. Since 2008 the partners have been actively involved in the cultural policy of the EU and obtained EU grants. Their activity is expanding to cover all forms of music and art that have been forbidden by totalitarian regimes (including Nazism and communism). It is planned that the first high point of the Festival will take place in 2013, when Marseille will be a European Capital of Culture.

Festival Committee of the Terezín Festival of Forbidden Music

Radek Křižanovský – Artistic Director of the Terezín Festival of Forbidden Music, Vice-Chairperson of Česká kultura, s.o.
Jan Páleníček – Chairperson of Česká kultura, s.o.
Růžena Čechová – Mayoress of Terezín
Jan Munk – Director of the Terezín Memorial
Miloslav Kubíček – Clerk of Terezín Town Hall
Jiří Janoušek – Deputy Director of the Terezín Memorial
Karel Fousek – Coordinator

Honorary Committee of the Terezín Festival of Forbidden Music

Zuzana Růžičková – harpsichordist
Eva Herrmannová – former Director of the Opera at the National Theatre
Martin Turnovský – conductor
Arnošt Lustig – writer