ORONO – Erwin Schulhoff, a Czech pianist born in 1894, was called a child prodigy by Antonin Dvorak. He studied in Vienna, Leipzig and Cologne. He learned from Debussy and championed new music by Scriabin, Schoenberg, Hindemith and Bartok. In addition to his formidable classical studies and compositions, he was intrigued by improvisational jazz and played in European clubs during the 1920s.

Schulhoff was, by any standard, a successful musician, composer and artist. But by Hitler’s standards, Schulhoff was simply a Jew. As such, Schulhoff was labeled a “degenerate artist,” and was arrested and deported to a concentration camp, where he was working on his eighth symphony when he perished from disease.

“The music is a testament to the human spirit,” said Phillip Silver, a music professor dedicated to performing music written by composers who perished or went into exile during World War II. “We tend to look at human beings in general as not having much control over their own world. Here we have people in the worst possible situation and as much as they could hope for a different ending, they knew what was going to happen. It is the victory of the human spirit that they did not spend their time lapsing into despair. To remain cultured and civilized and live your life as if civilization would return tomorrow – this, to me, is miraculous.”

Silver, who teaches music history and piano studies at the University of Maine, will perform Schulhoff’s “Hot-Sonate for Saxophone and Piano” on Sunday at Minsky Hall as part of an ongoing annual program called “Thwarted Voices,” about works by Holocaust-era composers. The concert is dedicated to the memory of the late Alfred Kantor, an artist who survived Auschwitz and Schwarheide. Kantor, who lived in Saco, died last week.

It has long been known that musician-prisoners played in orchestras at concentration camps during roll calls, executions and marches to gas chambers. In one case, when a prisoner escaped and was recaptured, he was openly transported to the gallows on a cart while camp musicians were forced to play a song called “I Shall Wait for Your Return.”

In his research, Silver, who grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y., and lived in Israel for six years, has focused on composers and has discovered that some compositions, many of which were written on scraps of paper with hand-penciled staffs, were forms of protest. Others were meant to lift the spirits of prisoners.

Nevertheless, many works were suppressed, lost, banned or hidden during the war years. But in the case of some composers who escaped, the music has simply fallen off the popular radar. Silver’s goal is to revive what he calls ” a body of repertoire that’s high class and can survive without any information about the tragedy behind them.” When he first heard music composed at Theresienstadt, a “model” Jewish ghetto, Silver was moved so much by the beauty of the music that he decided to take it on as a professional mission.

“I was completely swept away by how powerful the music was,” said Silver. “Then when I found out that the composer was murdered in Auschwitz a year later, I was very interested.”

For Sunday’s concert, Silver will be joined by his wife Noreen, a cellist, and Karel Lidrel, a saxophonist. In addition to the Schulhoff piece, the program will include works by Paul Ben-Haim, who fled Germany in 1933 and became the first internationally acclaimed Israeli composer; Bohuslav Martinu, a Czech nationalist who was blacklisted by the Nazis before fleeing to America; Ignaz Strasfogel, who became a conductor for the New York Philharmonic and the Metropolitan Opera; and Franz Schreker, whose works Nazis banned as degenerate.

Silver’s commitment to these artists comes from his drive to pursue meaning as a musician, his goal to advocate for little-known excellent music and his determination to remember the past. A number of his own family members perished in the Holocaust and the memory of watching his own grandmother and great uncle anguish over events in Europe lingers in his thoughts.

“In essence, I am trying to undo historical injustice and allow these works to be heard again and not keep them silent the way Nazis had hoped to into perpetuity,” said Silver, who intends to speak to the audience about the provenance of each work.

He hopes that music by Holocaust-era composers will not only be revived and reconsidered, but also rediscovered. Only 10 years ago, the pre-camp works of a young composer, who was worked to death by Nazis, were found in an attic in Prague.

Foremost among Silver’s intentions is that listeners appreciate the music and the human passion that created it. But it’s also important to recognize, he added, that “a horrible thing happened and we have to make sure such a thing never happens again. We have to be very, very vigilant.”

Phillip Silver will present “Thwarted Voices” at 2 p.m. Feb. 2 at Minsky Hall at the University of Maine. For tickets, call 581-1755 or 800-MCA-TIXX.