Amaury Barbat du Closel (6 February 1956 – 7 October 2024) was a French conductor and composer. He founded the Forum Voix Étouffées to bring attention to the music of composers persecuted, exiled or forgotten, especially suppressed by totalitarian regimes of the 20th century.
Throughout his career, du Closel directed more than 80 orchestras,[1] notably the Berliner Symphoniker and the Orchestre Les Métamorphoses that he founded in 2018,[1][3] to play on modern instruments in a historically informed manner, with a focus on music from the 20th century.[1] He performed at festivals such as La Folle Journée in Nantes and La Chaise-Dieu.[1] He was artistic director of the Opéra Nomade from 2000,[1][4] a touring opera company,[2] and from 2006 musical director of the Académie Lyrique,[1] an international academy for operatic singing.[2]
Du Closel founded in 2003 the Forum Voix Etouffées (transl. Suppressed Voices), an association dedicated to performing music by composers persecuted and forced into exile by Nazi Germany and other totalitarian governments of the 20th century, such as Ernst Krenek, Franz Schreker and Viktor Ullmann.[1][4] In 2005 he published Les Voix étouffées du Troisième Reich, about composers persecuted by the Nazis.[1][4] The book was awarded a prize for best essay from the Syndicat de la Critique Musicale.[1][5]
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