Music Restored and the OREL Foundation
In 2021, following the unprecedented nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, the members and directors of the OREL Foundation decided to transfer the organization’s intellectual assets to the Colburn School. With both the OREL Foundation and the Colburn School’s association to founding member James Conlon, it proved a fitting transition.
The Music Restored website, formerly known as the OREL Foundation website, developed out of the Foundation’s advocacy efforts to offer the most comprehensive English-language online resource on music suppressed by Nazi policies from 1933 to 1945. The site serves performers and organizations seeking information and guidance in the preparation of programs and raises awareness in the academic community of the role of these composers in the history of twentieth-century music.
Now under the care of Music Restored: The Ziering-Conlon Center for Exiled and Suppressed Composers, the Colburn School assumes responsibility for the maintenance and further development of the website’s content, allowing the School to build upon the important work it is doing to educate students, performers, and the public on the legacy of these composers.
About Music Restored: The Ziering-Conlon Center for Exiled and Suppressed Composers
The Music Restored: The Ziering-Conlon Center for Exiled and Suppressed Composers is a unique Colburn resource that encourages greater awareness and more frequent performances of music by composers whose careers and lives were tragically cut short by the Nazi regime.
Led by Artistic Director James Conlon, Music Restored brings well-deserved attention to composers whose names and works were very nearly eliminated from history through performances in Southern California and around the world, original video series, recordings, TEDx Talks and lectures, and more. It encourages young musicians to not only learn about the artists but to return to their music throughout their career.
Inspired by LA Opera’s groundbreaking Recovered Voices project, the initiative was established at Colburn in 2013 with the support of Los Angeles philanthropist Marilyn Ziering. Originally named the Ziering-Conlon Initiative for Recovered Voices, in 2025, the program was renamed Music Restored: The Ziering-Conlon Center for Exiled and Suppressed Composers in recognition of its expanded presence and launch of the Music Restored website with assets acquired from the OREL Foundation.
Music Restored is grateful to Robert Elias for many years of meaningful contributions and to the individual philanthropists who believe in this vital work. Music Restored is made possible through the generous support of Marilyn Ziering, the Emma and Adam Zhu Foundation, and the many individual philanthropists who believe in this vital work.
James Conlon, Artistic Director
One of today’s most versatile and respected conductors, James Conlon has cultivated a vast symphonic, operatic and choral repertoire. He has conducted virtually every major American and European symphony orchestra since his debut with the New York Philharmonic in 1974 and is one of classical music’s most recognized interpreters. Conlon serves as Artistic Director of Music Restored: The Ziering-Conlon Center for Exiled and Suppressed Composers at the Colburn School.
Conlon has served as Music Director of the Los Angeles Opera since 2006 and Artistic Advisor of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra since 2021. He has been Principal Conductor of the RAI National Symphony Orchestra in Torino, Italy (2016–20); Principal Conductor of the Paris Opera (1995–2004); General Music Director of the City of Cologne, Germany (1989–2003), simultaneously leading the Gürzenich Orchestra and the Cologne Opera; and Music Director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra (1983–1991).
Conlon has served as the Music Director of the Ravinia Festival, summer home of the Chicago Symphony (2005–15) and is now Music Director Laureate of the Cincinnati May Festival—the oldest Choral Festival in the United States—where he was Music Director for 37 years (1979–2016), marking one of the longest tenures of any director of an American classical music institution. As a guest conductor at the Metropolitan Opera, he has led more than 270 performances since his 1976 debut. He has also conducted at leading opera houses and festivals including the Wiener Staatsoper, Salzburg Festival, La Scala, Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Mariinsky Theatre, Covent Garden, Chicago Lyric Opera, and Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.
Conlon has devoted himself to extensive programming of the works of composers silenced by the Nazi regime throughout Europe and North America. In 1999, he received the Vienna-based Zemlinsky Prize for his efforts in bringing that composer’s music to international attention; in 2013 he was awarded the Roger E. Joseph Prize at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion for his extraordinary efforts towards eradicating racial and religious prejudice and discrimination; and in 2007 he received the Crystal Globe Award from the Anti-Defamation League. His work on behalf of suppressed composers led to the creation of Music Restored: The Ziering-Conlon Center for Exiled and Suppressed Composers at the Colburn School.
Adam Millstein, Program Director
Adam Millstein is a violinist who is developing a multifaceted career as a performer, lecturer, and music curator with a passion for uncovering overlooked masterpieces of the 20th century. He is currently pursuing his DMA at UCLA in violin performance studying with Varty Manouelian and Movses Pogossian.
Millstein is the Program Director of Music Restored: The Ziering-Conlon Center for Exiled and Suppressed Composers at the Colburn School. In this role, he spearheaded Schulhoff and More, a unique online series focused on the life and music of composer Erwin Schulhoff. He curated, performed, and organized the filmed recordings of Schulhoff’s music. The critically acclaimed album Shapeshifter: Music of Erwin Schulhoff on the Delos Label was made from these recordings.
Millstein has had the great honor to work extensively with internationally renowned conductor Maestro James Conlon, Music Director of the LA Opera and the Artistic Director of Music Restored. He recently appeared as soloist with Maestro Conlon conducting a recording of Mieczysław Weinberg’s Concertino for Violin and Strings. In 2022, Millstein curated, performed, and produced a filmed online concert for the Library of Congress featuring music by Weinberg, Herbert Zipper, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, and Franz Schreker.
Millstein believes strongly in educating performers and audiences about Music Restored. He has performed lecture recitals across the United States and abroad, notably at the Illinois Holocaust Museum, Los Angeles Holocaust Museum, USC Max Kade Institute, Colburn School, and Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Italy. He has been invited to guest lecture at Arizona State University on three different occasions as well as Northern Arizona University and UCLA as part of the Milken Center’s annual musical conference.
Millstein worked as Creative Producer for the Louisville Orchestra’s critically acclaimed production of Viktor Ullmann’s Opera Der Kaiser Von Atlantis. He was a featured panelist at the 2025 San Diego Comic Con to discuss his work producing the opera.
As an orchestral musician, Millstein has already played with some of the country’s greatest orchestras. He acted as guest associate concertmaster of the Baltimore Symphony and guest assistant concertmaster of the Louisville Orchestra. He has played as a substitute in the Los Angeles Opera and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. He has acted as concertmaster of the Sequoia Symphony and Aspen Philharmonic Orchestra where he received an Orchestral Leadership Fellowship for two summers.
As soloist, Millstein has appeared with the Sequoia Symphony with Maestro Bruce Kiesling and on two tours of Bulgaria with Maestro Maxim Eshkenazy. He has participated in the Mainly Mozart Festival, Aspen Music Festival, Nevada Chamber Music Festival, and performed at the La Jolla Music Series.
Millstein received his Artist Diploma at the Colburn School in Los Angeles where he studied with Robert Lipsett. He holds his Masters Degree from Colburn and his Bachelor of Musical Arts Degree from the University of Michigan where he studied with Danielle Belen.