Created in 2005 by conductor and composer Amaury du Closel, the Forum Voix Etouffées – CEMUT (European Center for the Study of Music and Totalitarianism), based in Strasbourg, is one of the main European organizations working to rehabilitate the immense musical heritage of musicians suppressed by totalitarian regimes in the 20th and 21st centuries (first and foremost Nazi barbarism), and to use this artistic approach to defend, at the European level, the strong values of democracy, the fight against anti-Semitism, freedom, and unity. Rejecting a compassionate approach to memory, the Forum Voix Etouffées – CEMUT seeks to build a “positive memory,” in the words of Alfred Grosser, Honorary President of the FVE, which is a tool for reflection on the disasters of the past and how to overcome them in today’s Europe.
Following the death of its founder Amaury du Closel in October 2024, the work of the Forum Voix Etouffées – CEMUT is now entrusted to the artistic direction of Thomas Tacquet, pianist, choir director, and musicologist, assisted in his task by musicologist and researcher Philippe Olivier.
