Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco was an Italian composer whose work was banned by Mussolini’s government because he was a Jew. With help from Arturo Toscanini and Jascha Heifetz, he was able to immigrate to the United States in 1939, first living in New York and then in Los Angeles. He would go on to write the film scores for more than 200 MGM movies, and his film score work is said to have been a significant influence on Henry Mancini, Nelson Riddle, Herman Stein and André Previn. Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s extensive oeuvre also includes choral music for Jewish sacred services, operas, and concertos, some commissioned by artists such as Heifetz and Gregor Piatigorsky.

Today, Castelnuovo-Tedesco is especially remembered for his exquisite compositions for guitar, many written for his friend and supporter Andrés Segovia. And that brings me to the topic of this blog.

Renata Arlotti is a young classical guitarist from Italy who has performed with major music institutions (such as the Royal Academy in London) and in prestigious music festivals throughout Europe. Her first CD was dedicated to Castelnuovo-Tedesco, and she was invited to the Italian Cultural Institute of Los Angeles (Istituto Di Cultura — Los Angeles) to perform a concert also dedicated to Castelnuovo-Tedesco.

Today she announced on Facebook that her U.S. debut is canceled because Trump’s State Department wouldn’t give her a visa. In her own words:

When I tried to get my visa to the USA, it was denied to me because last year I went to play in Tehran and took part to “Tehran Contemporary Music Festival”.

Being in the category of people that went to Iran after 2011, I am now not allowed to go to the USA unless I go through an interview at the American Embassy (which is to be held in my native country, Italy, although I live in London), unless I pay 12 times more the price of a regular Visa and wait quite a few time in order to get it, provided I am successful with the interview.

As there wasn’t time enough to go through all this process and I couldn’t take a flight to Rome or Milan, the journey I was really waiting for is now not possible anymore.

The Istituto Di Cultura — Los Angeles offered her another concert date to give her time to get the visa, so the concert may yet happen, but it’s not certain.

(Update) Here’s a YouTube video of Arlotti playing a rondo by Castelnuovo-Tedesco.

I learned about the cancellation from a Facebook friend who is a grandson of Castelnuovo-Tedesco, who wrote, “My grandfather was lucky to flee fascism in Italy, and now an artist from Italy can’t come here to pay tribute to him (almost 80 years later) because of our government.”

Yep, this is happening in America.

Renata Arlotti