Leo Geyer (2019, Music) featured on BBC Radio 4

Building on his DPhil research at Catz, Leo Geyer (2019, Music)’s newest special, ‘Orchestras of Auschwitz’, premiered on BBC Radio 4 on 18 March, 2025.

“Prisoner orchestras were an ever-present accompaniment to the horrors of Auschwitz – from enslavement marching tunes to cryptic compositions. Young conductor and composer Leo Geyer has – for more than 7 years – collaborated with the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum to study the orchestras and decode their arrangements.

He also discovered ripped and burned remnants of scores – 210 pieces of music, all incomplete – which he has painstakingly worked on to understand and restore. In 2025, Leo and his company Constella will perform an 80-minute Opera-Ballet of those salvaged compositional fragments, in tribute to the murdered musicians of Auschwitz.

By telling the story of Leo Geyer’s engagement with the history and the manuscripts, this programme asks what more we can learn and understand about the experience and legacy of the Holocaust by listening to the music.”

The special is available for replay on the BBC website.