Francesco Lotoro

Francesco Lotoro
Lotoro on 16 September 2009
Background information
Born	1964 Barletta
Origin	Italy
Occupation(s)	Pianist and musicologist
Instruments	Piano

Francesco Lotoro is an Italian pianist and musicologist.

After having studied at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, Francesco Lotoro became a specialized piano player, studying with Kornél Zempléni, Viktor Merzhanov, Tamás Vásáry and Aldo Ciccolini. His activity has been focused on Johann Sebastian Bach; he has transcribed the The Musical Offering for two pianos, the Brandenburg Concertos, the Deutsche Messe 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.

In 1995 Lotoro founded the Orchestra Musica Judaica. He recorded piano and chamber music written by Alois Piňos (), Petr Pokorný,Petr Eben and others after the Prague Spring. Then he conceived the project of collecting and recording all piano music produced during World War II. 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'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 children. Francesco and Grazia converted to Judaism in 2004.