Born in Amsterdam, 6 Dec, 1895
Died in Amsterdam, 2 Jul, 1952
- Henriëtte Bosmans [PRONUNCIATION] was the only child of musician parents. Her father was the principal cellist of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and her mother was a piano teacher.
- Having studied both piano and composition, Bosmans began performing as a professional concert pianist at 19 years old. Throughout the 1920s, she toured across Europe while also composing.
- Following the Nazi occupation during WWII, Bosmans was forced to stop performing publicly due to her Jewish heritage (her mother was Jewish), thereby severely damaging her professional career. That didn’t stop her from organizing underground concerts.
- In a terrifying turn of events, Bosmans’s (now elderly) mother was arrested and deported to a camp. However, through her own advocacy and the help of highly regarded acquaintances, Bosmans was able to use her professional status to keep her mother alive through the war.
- Following the war, Bosmans experienced a creative renaissance and wrote many new compositions. Sadly, not long after, her health began to deteriorate. She died in 1952 from stomach cancer.
- As a composer, many of Bosmans’s best-known compositions were inspired by her romantic relationships with both men and women, including cellist Frieda Belinfante, violinist Francis Koene, and soprano Noémie Pérugia.12
Sources
- Emily E. Hogstad, “Henriëtte Bosmans: How Did This Half-Jewish Composer Survive the Holocaust?,” Interlude (2023), accessed October 9, 2024, https://interlude.hk/henriette-bosmans-how-did-this-half-jewish-composer-survive-the-holocaust/.
- Helen H. Metzelaar, “Henriëtte Bosmans,” Forbidden Music Regained, accessed October 9, 2024, https://www.forbiddenmusicregained.org/search/composer/id/100018.