Prior to the concert, Conlon will be joined by Michael Beckerman, recently appointed Dean of the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music who has been recognized for his scholarship on Czech and Eastern European music, and Music Restored Program Director Adam Millstein, for a pre-concert discussion about the evening’s featured composers.  

The musical selection for the event has been characterized as a love letter to Bohemian melodies. It begins with Dvořák’s Nocturne in B Major, followed by another intriguing work by Vítězslava Kaprálová. The evening concludes with an orchestral tour de force by Bohuslav Martinů.  

Go to the Colburn Calendar for more information on the concert or to purchase tickets.  

Although many of the events for Music Restored: The Ziering-Conlon Center for Exiled and Suppressed Composers take place on the Colburn School campus or around Los Angeles, throughout its history, Artistic Director James Conlon has been sharing the music of suppressed composers through lectures and performances around the world so the memory and knowledge of them and their work will live on with the next generations across the globe. 

Program Director Adam Millstein also brings the message of Music Restored to other communities and students. This year, he and pianist Dominic Cheli were artists in residences for String Theory. Founded in 2009 by pianist Gloria Chien, String Theory presents a chamber music series at the Hunter Museum of American Art in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Millstein and Cheli dedicated three days to teaching master classes and performing concerts to nearly 1,000 students. 

“We played music by well-established composers like Mozart blended with Music Restored composers like Schulhoff and Korngold. It was inspiring to see the excitement from so many of the students of all ages! In between all of our pieces, we engaged with the students giving them history lessons and fielding questions,” said Cheli.  

They also were interviewed about the Music Restored initiative for a local classical radio station. 

“Work like this is so important for the mission of Music Restored because it exposes the next generation to this music and mission,” added Cheli. 

Also, last year, Music Restored and Millstein had the opportunity to collaborate with the Louisville Orchestra in Kentucky along with Tomer Zvulun, general and artistic director of the Atlanta Opera, in reviving Der Kaiser von Atlantis oder Die Tod-Verweigerung  (The Emperor of Atlantis or The Disobedience of Death) in conjunction with the release of Death Strikes: The Emperor of Atlantis, a graphic novel adaption of the opera. This rendition premiered in January 2025. 

Viktor Ullmann wrote the opera as an adaption on a libretto by Peter Kien while both men were imprisoned in Theresienstadt—the concentration camp now known as Terezín—in the Czech Republic. According to historical reports, prisoners were permitted a limited cultural life, including concerts, stage plays, and literary readings, which were then used by the Reich as propaganda. In this recent interpretation, a futuristic Atlantis never sank; rather it’s become a techno-totalitarian superpower under Emperor Overall, who declares war on everybody. 

Not only did the live performance incorporate scenes from the graphic novel projected onto a screen, the production included a photo of a violinist Paul Kling, who served as Louisville Orchestra’s concertmaster in the 1950s, but who also played in rehearsals of Der Kaiser  a decade earlier as a prisoner in Theresienstadt. 

“[The opera was] very dedicated to the graphic novel and the graphic novel was very dedicated to the original vision,” said Millstein. “It looks back toward the 20th century but also forward to the 21st century.” 

Millstein hopes Music Restored will be able to stage the opera again in the future. 

Throughout the 2025–26 season, the Colburn School has been highlighting the rich musical heritage of Czechia with a Czech Celebration. From recitals by our prestigious faculty performers to guest conductors to the Colburn Orchestra, audiences have enjoyed the artistic offerings by favorite Czech composers Dvořák, Martinů, and Smetana. Since artists in the Czech Republic also suffered under Nazi policies, it seemed ideal for Music Restored: The Ziering-Conlon Center for Exiled and Suppressed Composers to join the School’s celebration and showcase Bohemian composers this season. 

In November, Music Restored Program Director and violinist Adam Millstein paired with pianist Dominic Cheli to perform works by Smetana and Martinů. They also played pieces by two lesser-known composers whose lives were impacted by the Nazi regime: Vítĕzslava Kaprálová and Erwin Schulhoff. 

Kaprálová, a mentee and lover of Martinů, was on the threshold of a successful career as a composer and conductor when she died from an unknown illness in 1940 at the age of 25 while in exile in France. During her all-too-short lifetime, Kaprálová crafted nearly 50 compositions brimming with humor, energy, and warmth. 

Schulhoff was a prolific and multi-faceted figure in the 20th-century Czech music world whose works were banned at one point. Given the tumultuous political environment in Europe at the time, Schulhoff secured Soviet citizenship for him and his family, but before they could leave the Czech Republic, he was arrested and eventually deported to a concentration camp where he died of tuberculosis a year later. 

Schulhoff and his music already have been the subject of the Colburn-produced series Schulhoff and More, which includes a presentation by Conlon and several performances.  

“Martinů was prolific in his writing and a cutting-edge modernist. His controversial thoughts on Smetana landed him in significant hot water during the post-war years in Czechoslovakia. Kaprálová was a remarkably talented conductor. She was influenced by her beloved teacher, but wrote with a distinct musical voice creating powerful works in her short life,” said Millstein. “As a violinist, I am thrilled to perform the Czech composers featured this season. They represent different musical trends that are all beyond satisfying to play.” 

“I was overcome with emotion to feel the 100-year-old manuscripts in my hands that survived the war,” he recalled. “I was especially moved by a dedication made by the composer in German to his ‘little son Peter,’ the same son who would later bury his father outside of a Bavarian concentration camp where they were both interned.” 

Music Restored is honored to not only have accessed these original works, but also to perform and record them. Pianist Dominic Cheli joined the Music Restored Ensemble under the baton of Maestro James Conlon, artistic director for Music Restored, to record the complete Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 4 featuring Schulhoff’s cadenzas for the first and third movements.  

“I was moved to tears during the recording session,” said Millstein. “Maestro Conlon led the orchestra with a deep artistic vision of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto writing, and Dominic Cheli blended his love of Beethoven and Schulhoff when recording these stunning cadenzas. I am thrilled the world at large will be able to hear this work.” 

The new audio and video recording of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 with the Schulhoff cadenzas is available now on our Videos page.

Late last year, Culture OC, which has a media partnership with the OC Theatre Guild, featured Music Restored: The Ziering-Conlon Center for Exiled and Suppressed Composers and the work James Conlon has made a personal mission for the past 25 years.  

 “Music Restored Celebrates the Work of Composers the Nazis Tried to Erase” highlights Conlon’s discovery of how the relatively unknown composer Alexander von Zemlinsky’s life was affected by the Nazi Party, which then prompted Conlon to delve deeper into investigating and sharing information about the many composers whose lives and work were radically altered or silenced during the years 1933–45. It also follows the journey his efforts have taken to date, from adding the composers to repertoire, to the OREL Foundation and now his focus as artistic director for Music Restored. 

The feature article also touches on the expanding support for Music Restored, spotlighting pianists Aaron Zhu and his sister Celine Zhu, as youth ambassadors bringing these composers’ music and stories to new audiences. Aaron is a graduate of and Celine is currently a student at the Colburn Community School of Performing Arts. 

“Our immediate purpose … is to introduce this subject to the students of the Colburn School and encourage the performance of as many works as possible,” Conlon was quoted. “These young musicians are the ones that are charged with the challenge and responsibility of bringing this music forward for the next 50 years.”