Music Lost to Holocaust Finds New Life in Recording by Rutgers-Camden Prof

For Immediate Release

CAMDEN After receiving international acclaim for his first CD dedicated to the once-lost music of German-Jewish composer Robert Kahn, world-renowned tenor and Rutgers University-Camden assistant professor Martin Dillon has released a much anticipated second volume.

Der Liebe Macht, (The Power of Love) shares Kahns recordings that were suppressed and nearly eradicated by the Nazis. Of the 26 songs featured on the album, two are examples of complete works: Liebesfruhling Opus 34, with poetry by Friedrich Ruckert and Opus 55, with poetry by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

The collection on the first CD was a basic introduction to various styles that Robert Kahn employed: instrumental/voice, voice/piano, etc, Dillon says. On the second CD, I wanted to include a number of poets whose works that he set to music, to give the first-time listener an idea of how prolific Mr. Kahn was and that he was a composer of note. He wrote over 400 songs, which can only be said of the 19th-century masters Robert Schumann, Franz Schubert, and Johannes Brahms.

This is an extraordinary amount of fine, beautiful music that was composed, Dillon says.

The choice for the second CD was to show that as a master of the lied, or German art song, he also wrote song cycles, Dillon adds. On this second CD, I chose two complete works that stand on their own with a cohesive structure.

Dillon previously performed all of the works on the album in recitals, most recently in Turkey. His Rutgers-Camden colleague Joseph Schiavo, an instructor of music, provided the text on Kahns life and musical style in the CD cover.

In 1934, facing pressure from the Nazis and considering the advice of friend and fellow member of the Berlin Royal Academy Society Albert Einstein, Kahn left Germany for England. At the time, he was a well-known and widely published composer. He settled in England and never returned to Germany. After 1933, nothing written by a Jewish composer was published in Germany. Kahns music was largely forgotten following World War II.

Dillon learned of Kahns music while in Tutzing, Germany, south of Munich, performing with the composers great-grandson, David Greiner.

In 2003, Dillon released Jungbrunnen (Fountain of Youth), his first compilation of Kahns compositions. In Fanfare Recording Review, writer Jerry Dubbins said of Dillons CD, Every once in awhile, something so special and important comes along that sharing it with the readers of this journal becomes a moral imperative.

Plans are in the works for Dillon to record more of Kahns music. I have now recorded only about one-eighth of his vocal works, and I look forward to the third CD, which is in the planning stages, Dillon says. There will be at least two solo Opuses for tenor/piano, each featuring eight or nine songs. It will also include three duets for tenor/soprano and four duets for soprano/alto.

With the release of Jungbrunnen (Fountain of Youth) in 2003, this second compilation, and a third on the way, there has been a resurgence of the performance of Robert Kahns works, especially as Dillon continues to sing these works throughout the U.S. and abroad.

Dillon began his association with Rutgers-Camden in 1990 as an artist-in-residence. He now is an assistant professor or fine arts, who performs all over the world with todays top opera singers. Dillon earned his bachelors degree from the Cincinnati Conservatory, where he studied on a full scholarship, and a masters degree from the University of Oklahoma, where he was a Benton Scholar and honorary Phi Kappa Lambda inductee.

To order either of Dillons CDs, go to www.onesoulrecords.com, or call (212) 481-3080.

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