After her death in 1979, the compositions of Alba Rosa Viëtor remained untouched for 25 years. In 2004, her son Hendrik Vietor asked the Frost School of Music of the University of Miami, Florida to digitize his mother’s entire collection of compositions and bring them together in a catalog. The Alba Rosa Viëtor Foundation was founded on March 13, 2009, with the aim of: “Managing the musical legacy of Alba Rosa Viëtor and publicizing this legacy. To promote the practice of music, in particular improvisation and composition, and everything else that is directly or indirectly related to this or can be conducive to this, in the broadest sense of the word”.
In 2009, the Foundation published a book, The Story of Alba Rosa Viëtor: Violinist and Composer 1889–1979. The book contains the memoirs and lectures of Alba Rosa Viëtor, as well as reviews and essays on her work by Paul Janssen and Peter Fraser MacDonald, and a list of her compositions. The Foundation has also released a CD with Alba Rosa Viëtor’s Piano Trio Op. 8, recorded by the Storioni Trio.
In 2010, the catalog of her works was released and since then her compositions have been performed more regularly. These historical recordings of performances of the work of Alba Rosa Viëtor (some of which she performed) were transferred from 78 rpm records to CD. The Foundation has opened a website, published an article on Wikipedia and made all compositions publicly available at Petrucci.
In 2014, the Foundation started a biennial chamber music festival, Alba Rosa Viva! The festival is an idea of artistic director Reinild Mees, who already put the music of Alba Rosa Viëtor in the spotlight in 2012 during the Women’s Music Marathon in the Concert Hall Amsterdam. The Alba Rosa Viva! Festival aims not only to showcase the works of Alba Rosa, but also to draw attention to other female composers, whose works are rarely heard in classical music halls. Some contemporary compositions are always part of the festival program, in particular the works of the finalists of the biennale Alba Rosa Viëtor Composition Competition for composers up to 35 years old. An international jury, led by composer Willem Jeths, decides on the Alba Rosa Viëtor Prize, while the public decides on the Audience Prize.
In 2014 and 2016 the festival took place in the Leeuwenbergh in Utrecht, in 2018 in the Concertgebouw Amsterdam. In 2022 it found Alba Rosa Viva! Festival takes place in Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ in Amsterdam.
With thanks to Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ, Foundation Elise Mathilde Fonds, Mr. A. Fentener van Vlissingen Fund, Van den Berch van Heemstede Foundation, Foundation Thurkow Fonds, De Hoorn Foundation, De Lancey & De La Hanty Foundation, Zabawas Foundation, P.W. Janssen’s Friesche Stichting, Foundation Halbertsma-Santee Thedinga and a number of anonymous donors.
