Forbidden Music Regained


Leo Smit Stichting
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Composers persecuted in WWII

During the Second World War, many composers were persecuted by the Nazi’s, because they either had a Jewish background or refused to comply with Nazi rules. Their music was banned from all public performance. The Leo Smit Foundation, founded in 1996, is committed to regain this music.

In more than 200 concerts, we’ve brought to life music that was lost and forgotten. With this website, we share with musicians, programmers and music lovers worldwide what we’ve found, starting with music from composers who lived and worked in the Netherlands.

Here you can search for composers, works for various instrumentations or vocal repertoire. Find scores, look at manuscripts and listen to sound samples.

featured composer

Martha Belinfante-Dekker

Martha Belinfante-Dekker (1900 - 1989)

Martha Dekker, sister of the author Maurits Dekker, led a clandestine existence in hiding in Rotterdam, survived the war and was awarded for her resistance work. She was known for the so-called SD-performances (Singing and Declamation), the Belinfante Method  (after the war renamed as the Belinfante-Dekker Method) focusing on a conscious use of breathing (from the diaphragm) and voice. Martha set her own poems to lyrical dramas, tailored to this method. People suffering from asthma …   more

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