World War II Internment in the Mooragh Camp, Isle of Man
Channel: Culture Vannin
Date: 2021-01-29

An interview with the daughter of the conductor and composer, Peter Gellhorn, who was interned within Mooragh Internment Camp from 1940 to 1941, only receiving his release through the intervention of his friend, Ralph Vaughan Williams.
Here Barbara Gellhorn revisits the site of his internment and recalls her previous visit to the site with her father, and the things he reflected on of his imposed stay here.

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/

Barbara Gellhorn visited the Isle of Man in 2017 to accompany '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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