James Conlon honored for promoting music suppressed by Nazis

Conductor James Conlon, the music director of Los Angeles Opera, has received an award from a Jewish group for his work in resurrecting long-forgotten and rarely performed pieces by composers whose careers were cut short during the Holocaust.

Conlon was honored Tuesday with the 2012 Cohon Award for his work in the creative arts fields. The annual award, which comes with a monetary prize, is organized by the Rabbi Samuel S. and A. Irma Cohon Memorial Foundation in Illinois.

Conlon asked that the $30,000 prize be directed to the OREL Foundation, a nonprofit group that the conductor founded to help educate the public about the music of composers suppressed by the Nazis.

PHOTOS: Arts and culture in pictures by The Times

In past seasons at LA Opera, Conlon led a related series called Recovered Voices that presented productions of operas by such composers as Franz Schreker, Viktor Ullmann and Alexander von Zemlinsky at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.

But the series has been absent from the company’s mainstage schedule since 2010 due to budget constraints.

Instead, Conlon has conducted a scaled down version of the series, with musicians from the Colburn School and members of LA Opera’s young musicians program.

Conlon will next appear at the Dorothy Chandler in November for L.A. Opera’s production of Verdi’s “Falstaff.”

ALSO:

A day in the life of ‘Ring’ conductor James Conlon

Eli Broad discusses his $7 million gift to Los Angeles Opera

James Conlon plans to stay at the Los Angeles Opera through 2018