Francesco Lotoro is an Italian pianist and musicologist.

Early career

After having studied at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music

Franz Liszt Academy of Music

The Franz Liszt Academy of Music is a concert hall and music conservatory in Budapest, Hungary, founded on November 14, 1875...

 in Budapest

Budapest

Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...

, Francesco Lotoro became a specialized piano player, studying with Kornél Zempléni, Viktor Merzhanov, Tamás Vásáry

Tamás Vásáry

Tamás Vásáry is a celebrated Hungarian concert pianist.- Biography and career :Vásáry made his debut at the age of 8, performing Mozart's Piano Concerto in D major, K.107 in the city of his birth, where he gave a solo recital the following year. He then began to concertize regularly as a child...

 and Aldo Ciccolini

Aldo Ciccolini

Aldo Ciccolini , is an Italian-French pianist.-Biography:Aldo Ciccolini was born in Naples. His father, who bore the title of Marquis of Macerara, worked as a typographer. He took his first lessons with Maria Vigliarolo d'Ovidio, and entered Naples Conservatory in 1934 at the age of 9, by special...

. His activity has been focused on Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...

; he has transcribed the The Musical Offering

The Musical Offering

The Musical Offering , BWV 1079, is a collection of canons and fugues and other pieces of music by Johann Sebastian Bach, all based on a single musical theme given to him by Frederick II of Prussia , to whom they are dedicated...

for two pianos, the Brandenburg Concertos

Brandenburg concertos

The Brandenburg concertos by Johann Sebastian Bach are a collection of six instrumental works presented by Bach to Christian Ludwig, margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt, in 1721 . They are widely regarded as among the finest musical compositions of the Baroque era...

, the Deutsche Messe

Deutsche Messe

Deutsche Messe, or The German Mass, was published by Martin Luther in 1526. It followed his Latin mass, Formula missae . Both of these masses were meant only as a suggestion made on request and were not expected to be used exactly as they were, but could be altered...

and the Canons on the Goldberg ground, BWV 1087; and he reconstructed, performed and recorded the Christmas Oratorio for solo strings, mixed choir and piano by Friedrich Nietzsche

Friedrich Nietzsche

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was a 19th-century German philosopher, poet, composer and classical philologist...

.

Major work

In 1995 Lotoro founded the Orchestra Musica Judaica. He recorded piano and chamber music written by , Petr Pokorný, Petr Eben

Petr Eben

Petr Eben was a Czech composer of modern and contemporary classical music.-His life:Born in Žamberk in northeastern Bohemia, Eben spent his youth in Český Krumlov in southern Bohemia. There he studied piano, and later cello and organ...

 and others after the Prague Spring

Prague Spring

The Prague Spring was a period of political liberalization in Czechoslovakia during the era of its domination by the Soviet Union after World War II...

. Then he conceived the project of collecting and recording all piano music produced during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. He created the CD encyclopedia KZ Musik (48 CD volumes) containing all of the music composed in concentration camps during World War II in Europe, North Africa and Asia. He completed and recorded Erwin Schulhoff

Erwin Schulhoff

Erwin Schulhoff was a Czech composer and pianist.-Life:Born in Prague of Jewish-German origin, Schulhoff was one of the brightest figures in a generation of European musicians whose successful careers were prematurely terminated by the rise of the Nazi regime in Germany...

's 8th Symphony for male choir and piano. As composer he has written the opera Misha e i lupi and Golà, a Jewish suite for male singer and orchestra. He is completing the Dizionario della Letteratura Musicale Concentrazionaria.

He has been mentioned in the Dizionario Enciclopedico della Musica e dei Musicisti by the Italian publishing house UTET.

He married Grazia Tiririello, his main collaborator; they have no sons. Francesco and Grazia converted to Judaism

Judaism

Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...

on 2004.

Discography

• F. Busoni, F. Nietzsche, B. Pasternak, F. G. Lorca. Sorriso
• Shoah; R. Karel, P. Haas, G. Klein, V. Ullmann. Sorriso
• F. Nietzsche; Christmas Oratorium (Lotoro, RSI). Sorriso
• Brundibàr; H. Kràsa, G. Klein, V. Ullmann. Sorriso
• F. Nietzsche; Christmas Oratorium (Lotoro, Ars Cantica). Sarx
• J.S.Bach; A Musical Offering, (Lotoro, Greco). Symposion
• Praha '68; Pinos, Pokorny, Eben, Istvan, Knizak. Symposion
• J.S.Bach; A German Mass (Lotoro, Ciccolini). Symposion
• Musica Judaica (2 CDs). Symposion
• KZ MUSIK, 48 CD-volumes (Lotoro&others). Musikstrasse-Membran
• "Musiciens martyrs de l'holocauste" : Rudilf Karel, Pavel Haas, Gideon Klein, Victor Ullmann. ARION (ARN68339).

Publications

• F. Nietzsche; Christmas Oratorio (reconstruction of music and lyrics)
• J.S.Bach; A Musical Offering e Erbarme dich (transcription for two pianos)
• J.S.Bach; A German Mass e 14 Canoni (transcription for two pianos)
• P. Eben; Svaty Vaclave (transcription for two pianos)
• Dizionario della Letteratura Musicale Concentrazionaria