Peter Gellhorn & the Mooragh Internment Camp: An interview with Norbert Meyn
Channel: Culture Vannin
Date: 2021-01-29

A short interview about the work being undertaken to remember and celebrate the life and work of a composer interned within the Mooragh Internment Camp during the Second World War.
Conducted within the grounds of the former camp itself, this short conversation about the life and work of Peter Gellhorn is with with Norbert Meyn, Project Supervisor of 'Peter Gellhorn: The Musical Legacy.'

The conductor and composer, Peter Gellhorn (1912-2004), was a professional musician in England under the outbreak of war, whereupon he was arrested as an 'enemy alien' and interned in Mooragh Camp on Ramsey Promenade.
While here Gellhorn gave piano recitals, played the organ in the local church, directed ensembles and choirs, and composed several works including two studies for violin, two works for string quartet, and a work for strings and male voices, 'Mooragh,' in a setting of words by F. F. Bieber, a fellow internee.
Gellhorn was eventually released on 21 January 1941 after intervention by Ralph Vaughan Williams in his role as chair of the Committee for the Release of Interned Alien Musicians.

More information about Peter Gellhorn, his music, and his time interned in the Isle of Man is available here:
https://www.petergellhorn.com/

Norbert Meyn is a professional singer, coach and project curator at the Royal College of Music. He is Project Supervisor of 'Peter Gellhorn: The Musical Legacy.'
He visited the Isle of Man in 2017 as a part of 'Singing a Song in a Foreign Land‎,' the Royal College of Music research and performance project highlighting the contribution of musicians who fled from Nazi Germany and Austria ‎to musical life in Britain and beyond.
https://www.rcm.ac.uk/singingasong/

These Isle of Man concerts were generously supported by the Isle of Man Arts Council, Culture Vannin and the Malcolm Scott Dickinson Charitable Trust.

This film was produced by Culture Vannin.
Culture Vannin exists to promote, support and celebrate the culture of the Isle of Man.
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