Theo Smit Sibinga
1899 -1958
For a full biography and a complete list of works with links to scores and recordings, visit www.forbiddenmusicregained.org
Portrait of Theo Smit Sibinga painted by Paula Schudel-Petraschke (1941)
After Smit Sibinga's death, Everard van Royen, director of the Amsterdam Music Lyceum, praised him as a sensitive and skillful composer and “the beauty of the ancient civilization of the Indonesian archipelago which had influenced him during his twenty years in the tropics.” Theo Smit Sibinga’s music is transparent and melodic and he felt attracted to modern French culture. As a composer he remained relatively unknown since he was not the kind of man to put himself at the forefront. Many of his manuscripts were lost during his captivity in the camps on the island of Java in the Dutch East Indies.
Theodore Henri Smit Sibinga was born in Bandung and still a toddler when his family returned to the Netherlands. After high school, he started cello lessons with Bertrand Drilsma and Marix Loevensohn, and later with Gérard Hekking, the principal cellist of the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam. Already at the age of seven … Continue
Selected works
For a complete list of works by Theo Smit Sibinga visit our website Forbidden Music Regained.
More information: www.theosmitsibinga.nl
Let forbidden music sound again
In the Second World War, many composers were silenced because of their Jewish descent or their resistance. Their music was forbidden. The Leo Smit Stichting carries out research, tells composers' stories, makes sheet music available and performs forgotten music. Together with musicians, programmers, researchers and listeners we give composers their rightful place in music history.
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