The rise of Nazism and its aftermath led to a wave of Central European intellectuals, many of them Jewish, seeking escape abroad during the 1930s and 1940s due to persecution at home. It has been claimed that nearly 70 composers came to the UK to escape Nazi persecution between 1933 and 1945, though many of them subsequently moved on elsewhere. This list details those composers, performers, publishers and musicologists who ended up living and working in Britain, where they had a significant and lasting influence on musical culture and development. Primarily composers * Boaz Bischofswerder (1885-1946). Arrived in 1933 from Germany. Deported as an

enemy alien In customary international law, an enemy alien is any native, citizen, denizen or subject of any foreign nation or government with which a domestic nation or government is in conflict and who is liable to be apprehended, restrained, secured and ...

to Australia in 1940 with his son

Felix Werder Felix Werder AM (24 February 19223 May 2012) was a German-born Australian composer of classical and electronic music, and also a noted critic and educator. The son of a distinguished liturgical composer, he composed all his life. His published ...

Nicholas Brodszky Nicholas "Slug" Brodszky (russian: Николай Бродский; April 20, 1905December 24, 1958) was a composer of popular songs for the theatre and for films. Brodszky was born in Odessa, Russian Empire, into a Jewish family, who moved to ...

(1905-1958). Arrived from Austria 1939, moved on to California 1949 *

Francis Chagrin Francis Chagrin (born Alexander Paucker, 15 November 1905 – 10 November 1972), was a composer of film scores and popular orchestral music, as well as a conductor. He was also the "organizer and chief moving spirit" who founded the Society for ...

(1905-1972). Arrived in 1936 from Romania (via France) * Erika Fox (born 1936). Arrived in 1939 from Austria *

Hans Gál Hans Gál OBE (5 August 1890 – 3 October 1987) was an Austrian composer, pedagogue, musicologist, and author, who emigrated to the United Kingdom in 1938. Life Gál was born to a Jewish family in the small village of Brunn am Gebirge, Lowe ...

(1890-1987). Arrived 1938 from Austria *

Peter Gellhorn Peter Gellhorn (born Hans Fritz Gellhorn, October 24, 1912 – February 13, 2004) was a German conductor, composer, pianist and teacher who settled in London and made a career in Britain that lasted unbroken until his death. Life Gellhorn, the ...

(1912-2014). Arrived 1935 from Germany *

Roberto Gerhard Robert Gerhard i Ottenwaelder (; 25 September 1896 – 5 January 1970) was a Spanish Catalan composer and musical scholar and writer, generally known outside Catalonia as Roberto Gerhard.Malcolm MacDonald. 'Gerhard, Roberto' in ''Grove Music Onl ...

(1896-1970). Arrived 1939 from Spain (via France) *

Berthold Goldschmidt Berthold Goldschmidt (18 January 190317 October 1996) was a German Jewish composer who spent most of his life in England. The suppression of his work by Nazi Germany, as well as the disdain with which many Modernist critics elsewhere dismissed his ...

(1903-1996). Arrived 1935 from Germany * Allan Gray (real name Josef Zmigrod, 1902-1973). Arrived 1935 from Austria *

Joseph Horovitz Joseph Horovitz (26 May 1926 – 9 February 2022) was an Austrian-born British composer and conductor best known for his 1970 pop cantata '' Captain Noah and his Floating Zoo'', which achieved widespread popularity in schools. Horovitz also comp ...

(1926-2022). Arrived in 1938 from Austria *

Karel Janovický Karel Janovický (born 18 February 1930) is a Czech composer, pianist, BBC producer and administrator who has lived in the UK since 1950, one of the youngest of the group of European émigré composers who came to live and work in Britain during t ...

(born 1930). Arrived 1950 from Czechoslovakia * Robert Kahn (1865-1951). Arrived 1938 from Germany *

Hans May Hans May (11 July 1886 – 1 January 1959) was an Austrian-born composer who went into exile in Britain in 1936 after the Nazis came to power in his homeland, being of Jewish descent. May first gained attention as a composer during the 1920s a ...

(1886-1959). Arrived 1936 from Germany (via Paris), returned to Europe 1957. * Ernst Meyer (1905-1988). Arrived 1933 from Germany, returned 1948 *

Karl Rankl Karl Rankl (1 October 1898 – 6 September 1968) was a British conductor and composer who was of Austrian birth. A pupil of the composers Schoenberg and Webern, he conducted at opera houses in Austria, Germany and Czechoslovakia until fleeing f ...

(1898-1968). Arrived 1939 from Austria *

Franz Reizenstein Franz Theodor Reizenstein (7 June 191115 October 1968) was a German-born British composer and concert pianist. He left Germany for sanctuary in Britain in 1934 and went on to have his teaching and performing career there. As a composer, he succ ...

(1911-1968). Arrived 1934 from Germany *

Mátyás Seiber Mátyás György Seiber (; 4 May 190524 September 1960) was a Hungarian-born British composer who lived and worked in the United Kingdom from 1935 onwards. His work linked many diverse musical influences, from the Hungarian tradition of Bartó ...

(1905-1960). Arrived 1935 from Hungary * Leopold Spinner (1906-1980). Arrived 1939 from Austria *

Mischa Spoliansky Mischa Spoliansky (28 December 1898 – 28 June 1985) was a Russian-born composer who made his name writing cabaret and revue songs in the Weimar Republic of the 1920s and early 1930s, before he was forced to emigrate to London in 1933 when Hi ...

(1898-1985). Arrived 1933 from Germany *

Egon Wellesz Egon Joseph Wellesz CBE (21 October 1885 – 9 November 1974) was an Austrian, later British composer, teacher and musicologist, notable particularly in the field of Byzantine music. Early life and education in Vienna Egon Joseph Wellesz was ...

(1885-1974). Arrived 1938 from Austria *

Arthur Willner Arthur Willner (5 March 18816 April 1959) was a Czech composer and teacher. Willner was born in Turn ( cs, Trnovany) in Teplitz-Schönau, Bohemia, Austrian Empire. Having trained in Leipzig with Karl Piutti and Carl Reinecke and Munich with ...

(1881-1959). Arrived 1938 from Austria Other composers stayed for a short time in Britain before moving on elsewhere. They included

Hanns Eisler Hanns Eisler (6 July 1898 – 6 September 1962) was an Austrian composer (his father was Austrian, and Eisler fought in a Hungarian regiment in World War I). He is best known for composing the national anthem of East Germany, for his long artisti ...

Ernst Krenek Ernst Heinrich Krenek (, 23 August 1900 – 22 December 1991) was an Austrian, later American, composer of Czech origin. He explored atonality and other modern styles and wrote a number of books, including ''Music Here and Now'' (1939), a study ...

Karol Rathaus Karol Rathaus (Karl Leonhard Bruno Rathaus; also Leonhard Bruno; 16 September 1895 — 21 November 1954) was a German-Austrian Jewish composer who immigrated to the United States via Berlin, Paris, and London, escaping the rise of Nazism in German ...

Kurt Roger Kurt George Roger (3 May 1895 – 4 August 1966) was an Austrian–American composer. Roger was born in Austria on 3 May 1895 to Viennese parents and studied in Vienna with Guido Adler, and in class with Arnold Schoenberg - though not following S ...

Ernst Toch Ernst Toch (; 7 December 1887 – 1 October 1964) was an Austrian composer of classical music and film scores. He sought throughout his life to introduce new approaches to music. Biography Toch was born in Leopoldstadt, Vienna, into the family ...

and

Kurt Weill Kurt Julian Weill (March 2, 1900April 3, 1950) was a German-born American composer active from the 1920s in his native country, and in his later years in the United States. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for his fru ...

SOAS, Jewish Music Institute
/ref> Primarily conductors or performers/teachers *

Oskar Adler Oskar Adler (4 June 187515 May 1955) was an Austrian violinist, physician and esoteric savant. He was the brother of the political theorist Max Adler and a key early influence on his contemporary Arnold Schoenberg. His friend and student Hans K ...

(1875-1955). Arrived 1938 from Austria *

Amadeus Quartet The Amadeus Quartet was a string quartet founded in 1947 and disbanded in 1987, having retained its founding members throughout its history. Noted for its smooth, sophisticated style, its seamless ensemble playing, and its sensitive interpretat ...

(three members of). Arrived 1938 from Austria *

Walter Goehr Walter Goehr (; 28 May 19034 December 1960) was a German composer and conductor. Biography Goehr was born in Berlin, where he studied with Arnold Schoenberg and embarked on a conducting career, before being forced as a Jew to seek employment outsi ...

(1903-1960). Arrived 1933 from Germany * Michael Graubart (born 1930). Arrived 1938 from Austria *

Erich Gruenberg Erich Gruenberg (12 October 19247 August 2020) was an Austrian-born British violinist and teacher. Following studies in Israel, he was a principal violinist of major orchestras, including the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, the London ...

(1924-2020). Arrived 1946 from Austria (via Israel, 1938) *

Paul Hamburger Paul Hamburger (3 September 1920, Vienna – 11 April 2004, London) was a British pianist, accompanist, chamber musician, and scholar. Paul Hamburger was born in Vienna in 1920, and studied at the Vienna State Academy before emigrating to Englan ...

(1920-2004). Arrived 1939 from Austria * Hans Heimler (1913-1990). Arrived 1938 from Vienna * Helene Isepp (1899-1968). Arrived 1938 from Austria *

Martin Isepp Martin Johannes Sebastian Isepp (30 September 1930 – 25 December 2011) was an Austrian‐born British pianist, harpsichordist, conductor and teacher. He had an international career, and worked with leading singers for several decades. Among tho ...

(1930-2011). Arrived 1938 from Austria *

Louis Kentner Louis Philip Kentner (19 July 190523 September 1987) was a Hungarian, later British, pianist who excelled in the works of Chopin and Liszt, as well as the Hungarian repertoire. Life and career He was born Lajos Kentner in Karwin in Austrian S ...

(1905-1987). Arrived 1935 from Hungary *

Anita Lasker-Wallfisch Anita Lasker-Wallfisch (born 17 July 1925) is a German-British cellist, and a surviving member of the Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz. Family Lasker was born into a German Jewish family in Wrocław, Breslau, then Germany (present-day Wrocław, P ...

(born 1925). Arrived 1946 from Germany *

Maria Lidka Maria Lidka (27 May 1914–12 December 2013) was a German-born classical violinist. She was born Marianne Louise Liedtke in Berlin into a highly cultured Jewish family. Her father was an appellate court lawyer, a role he lost in April 1933 with t ...

(1914-2013). Arrived 1934 from Germany *

Rawicz and Landauer Rawicz and Landauer were an immensely popular piano duo team that performed from 1932 to 1970. They were initially based in Vienna, Austria, but moved to the United Kingdom in the early part of their career. They were known for their arrangemen ...

, piano duo. Arrived 1935 from Austria. *

Max Rostal Max Rostal (7 July 1905 – 6 August 1991) was a violinist and a viola player. He was Austrian-born, but later took British citizenship. Biography Max Rostal was born in Cieszyn to a Jewish merchant family. As a child prodigy, he started studyin ...

(1905-1991). Arrived 1934 from Germany * Rudolf Schwarz (1905-1994). Arrived from imprisonment in Germany (via Sweden) in 1947 *

Jan Sedivka Jan Boleslav Sedivka (in Czech: Šedivka) (Slaný, 8 September 1917 Hobart, 23 August 2009), Czech-born, was one of Australia's foremost violinists and teachers. Biography Educated in Czechoslovakia (Otakar Ševčík and Jaroslav Kocián), Fra ...

(1917-2009). Arrived 1942 from Czechoslovakia *

Richard Tauber Richard Tauber (16 May 1891 – 8 January 1948) was an Austrian tenor and film actor. Early life Richard Tauber was born in Linz, Austria, to Elisabeth Seifferth (née Denemy), a widow and an actress who played soubrette roles at the local theat ...

(1891-1948). Left Austria 1938, British citizenship gained in March 1940. *

Vilém Tauský Vilém Tauský CBE (20 July 1910, Přerov, Moravia – 16 March 2004, London) was a Czech conductor and composer who, from the advent of the Second World War, lived and worked in the UK, one of a significant group of émigré composers and musici ...

(1910-2004). Arrived 1940 from Czechoslovakia (via France) * Ilse Wolf (1921-1999). Arrived 1939 from Germany Pianist

Artur Schnabel Artur Schnabel (17 April 1882 – 15 August 1951) was an Austrian-American classical pianist, composer and pedagogue. Schnabel was known for his intellectual seriousness as a musician, avoiding pure technical bravura. Among the 20th centur ...

and cellists Fritz Ball and

Emanuel Feuermann Emanuel Feuermann (November 22, 1902 – May 25, 1942) was an internationally celebrated cellist in the first half of the 20th century. Life Feuermann was born in 1902 in Kolomyja, Galicia, Austro-Hungarian Empire (now Kolomyia, Ukraine) to ...

stayed for a short time in Britain before moving on Primarily critics or musicologists *

Theodor Adorno Theodor is a masculine given name. It is a German form of Theodore. It is also a variant of Teodor. List of people with the given name Theodor * Theodor Adorno, (1903–1969), German philosopher * Theodor Aman, Romanian painter * Theodor Blueger, ...

(1903-1969) arrived 1934 from Germany (with frequent trips back) but moved on to New York in 1938 *

Mosco Carner Mosco Carner (born Mosco Cohen) (15 November 1904 – 3 August 1985) was an Austrian-born British musicologist, conductor and critic. He wrote on a wide range of music subjects, but was particularly known for his studies on the life and works of ...

(1904-1985). Arrived in 1933 from Poland *

Otto Erich Deutsch Otto Erich Deutsch (5 September 1883 – 23 November 1967) was an Austrian musicologist. He is known for compiling the first comprehensive catalogue of Franz Schubert's compositions, first published in 1951 in English, with a revised edition pub ...

(1883-1967). Arrived in 1939, returned to Vienna 1951 *

Hans Keller Hans (Heinrich) Keller (11 March 19196 November 1985) was an Austrian-born British musician and writer, who made significant contributions to musicology and music criticism, as well as being a commentator on such disparate fields as psychoana ...

(1919-1985). Arrived 1938 from Austria * Else Mayer-Lissmann (1914-1990). Arrived 1938 from Germany *

Hans Redlich Hans Ferdinand Redlich (11 February 1903 – 27 November 1968) was an Austrian musicologist, writer, conductor and composer who, due to political disruption by the Nazi Party, lived and worked in Britain from 1939 until his death nearly thirty yea ...

(1903-1968). Arrived 1939, from Germany *

Peter Stadlen Peter Stadlen (14 July 1910 – 21 January 1996) was an Austrian pianist, musicologist and critic, specialising in the study and interpretation of Beethoven and the composers of the Second Viennese School. Stadlen, who was born in Vienna, initial ...

(1910-1996). Arrived 1938 from Austria *

Erwin Stein Erwin Stein (7 November 188519 July 1958) was an Austrian musician and writer, prominent as a pupil and friend of Schoenberg, with whom he studied between 1906 and 1910.

(1885-1958). Arrived 1938 from Austria *

Klaus Wachsmann Klaus Philipp Wachsmann (8 March 1907 – 17 July 1984) was a British ethnomusicologist of German birth. Born in 1907 in Berlin, he is considered a pioneer in the study of the traditional musics of Africa. His studies in Germany (on pre-Gregorian ...

(1907-1984). Arrived 1936 from Germany. Uganda (1937-57), UK (1957-63), US (1963-75), UK (1975-84) Primarily publishers * Adolf Aber (1893-1960). Arrived from Germany, 1933, worked at Novello * Walter Bergmann (1902-1988). Arrived from Germany, 1939, worked at Schott * Otto Blau (1893-1980). Arrived 1938 from Austria, worked at Josef WeinbergerJosef Weinberger Wein
/ref> *

Alfred Kalmus Alfred August Ulrich Kalmus (16 May 1889 – 24 September 1972) was an influential Austrian-born British music publisher. Life and work Kalmus was born in Vienna and studied law there, obtaining his Doctor of Letters from Vienna University in 191 ...

(1889-1972). Arrived 1936 from Austria, worked at

Universal Edition Universal Edition (UE) is a classical music publishing firm. Founded in 1901 in Vienna, they originally intended to provide the core classical works and educational works to the Austrian market (which had until then been dominated by Leipzig-base ...

Ernst Roth Ernst Roth (1 June 1896 – 17 July 1971) was a music publisher for Universal Edition in Vienna and Boosey & Hawkes in London, and became the company's director in 1968. He also wrote about music and translated. Career Roth was born in Pragu ...

(1896-1971). Arrived 1938 from Austria, worked at

Boosey & Hawkes Boosey & Hawkes is a British music publisher purported to be the largest specialist classical music publisher in the world. Until 2003, it was also a major manufacturer of brass, string and woodwind musical instruments. Formed in 1930 throu ...

References

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' (2008). * Gal, Hans
''Music Behind Barbed Wire: A Diary of Summer, 1940''
(2014).

(2005). * Haas, Michael. ''Forbidden Music: The Jewish Composers Banned by the Nazis''. New Haven and London: Yale University Press (2013). (cloth); {{ISBN, 978-0-300-15431-3 (pbk). * Hirschfeld, G. and others.

' (1991). * ttps://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Black_Book/JwSCzQEACAAJ?hl=en Oldfield, Sybil. ''The Black Book: The Britons on the Nazi Hitlist''(2020).
Snowman, Daniel, ''The Hitler Emigrés''
(2002). * Royal College of Music
Project celebrating the work of migrant musicians who fled the Nazis.
* Royal College of Music.
Singing a Song in a Foreign Land
', Symposium programme, February 2014.
''Music and the Holocaust: Composers in Exile''.

''Through Lotte's Lens'': A film by Tony Britten.
European diaspora in the United Kingdom Emigre Jewish emigrants from Austria to the United Kingdom after the Anschluss