Leopold "Leo" Smit (14 May 1900 – 30 April 1943) was a Dutch

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

, murdered during

The Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

at the

Sobibor extermination camp Sobibor (, Polish: ) was an extermination camp built and operated by Nazi Germany as part of Operation Reinhard. It was located in the forest near the village of Żłobek Duży in the General Government region of German-occupied Poland. As ...

Life

He came from a mixed

Ashkenazi Ashkenazi Jews ( ; he, יְהוּדֵי אַשְׁכְּנַז, translit=Yehudei Ashkenaz, ; yi, אַשכּנזישע ייִדן, Ashkenazishe Yidn), also known as Ashkenazic Jews or ''Ashkenazim'',, Ashkenazi Hebrew pronunciation: , singu ...

and

Sephardi Sephardic (or Sephardi) Jews (, ; lad, Djudíos Sefardíes), also ''Sepharadim'' , Modern Hebrew: ''Sfaradim'', Tiberian Hebrew, Tiberian: Səp̄āraddîm, also , ''Ye'hude Sepharad'', lit. "The Jews of Spain", es, Judíos sefardíes (or ), ...

family. He was born at 17,

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

, and studied piano at the

Conservatorium van Amsterdam The Conservatorium van Amsterdam (CvA) is a Dutch conservatoire of music located in Amsterdam. This school is the music division of the Amsterdam University of the Arts, the city's vocational university of arts. The Conservatorium van Amsterdam ...

with Sem Dresden and Ulfert Schults and then composition with Bernard Zweers and Sem Dresden. In 1927 he moved to

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, where the music of

Maurice Ravel Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composers rejected the term. In ...

and

Igor Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (6 April 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, later of French (from 1934) and American (from 1945) citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the ...

made a deep impression on him. Here he was in close contact with the group of composers known as ''

Les Six "Les Six" () is a name given to a group of six composers, five of them French and one Swiss, who lived and worked in Montparnasse. The name, inspired by Mily Balakirev's '' The Five'', originates in two 1920 articles by critic Henri Collet in '' ...

'', which included

Darius Milhaud Darius Milhaud (; 4 September 1892 – 22 June 1974) was a French composer, conductor, and teacher. He was a member of Les Six—also known as ''The Group of Six''—and one of the most prolific composers of the 20th century. His compositions ...

Arthur Honegger Arthur Honegger (; 10 March 1892 – 27 November 1955) was a Swiss composer who was born in France and lived a large part of his life in Paris. A member of Les Six, his best known work is probably ''Antigone'', composed between 1924 and 1927 to ...

, and

Francis Poulenc Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc (; 7 January 189930 January 1963) was a French composer and pianist. His compositions include songs, solo piano works, chamber music, choral pieces, operas, ballets, and orchestral concert music. Among the best-kno ...

. He married Lien de Vries in Amsterdam in January 1933. At the end of 1936, Smit moved to

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

, where he stayed for a year. In late 1937, he returned to Amsterdam, where he completed his last work, the sonata for flute and piano, on February 12, 1943. On April 27, 1943 he was deported to

Sobibor Sobibor (, Polish: ) was an extermination camp built and operated by Nazi Germany as part of Operation Reinhard. It was located in the forest near the village of Żłobek Duży in the General Government region of German-occupied Poland. As an ...

, where he was killed three days later. After his death there was for a time little interest in his music, but since the late 1980s, his work has been performed regularly. A 4-CD box set containing his complete works, ''Kamermuziek en Orkestwerken'' (NM 93003) has been issued.

Compositions

*Sonata for Flute and Piano (1943); orchestrated in 1989 by Willem Strietman *String Quartet (1939–1943) *Divertimento for Piano 4-Hands (1940); orchestrated in 2008 by Andries van Rossem *Concerto for Viola and String Orchestra (1940) *''De bruid'' (The Fiancée) for Female Chorus (1939); words by Jan Prins *Suite for Oboe and Cello (1938) *Trio for Clarinet, Viola and Piano (1938) *''Kleine Prelude van Ravel'' for Alto and Piano (1938); poem by

Martinus Nijhoff Martinus Nijhoff (20 April 1894, in The Hague – 26 January 1953, in The Hague) was a Dutch poet and essayist. He studied literature in Amsterdam and law in Utrecht. His debut was made in 1916 with his volume ''De wandelaar'' ("The wanderer"). F ...

*''La Mort'' (Death) for Soprano, Alto and Piano (1938); words by

Charles Baudelaire Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poetry, French poet who also produced notable work as an essayist and art critic. His poems exhibit mastery in the handling of rhyme and rhythm, contain an exoticis ...

*Concerto for Piano and Wind Orchestra (1937) *Concertino for Cello and Orchestra (1937) *Symphonie in C (1936) *Sextet for Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Bassoon, Horn and Piano (1933) *Concertino for Harp and Orchestra (1933) *''Deux hommages'' for Piano (1928–1930) *''Schemselnihar'', Ballet for orchestra (1929) *Quintet for Flute, Violin, Viola, Cello and Harp (1928) *Trio for Flute, Viola and Harp (1926) *Suite for Piano (1926); ''Forlane et Rondeau'', movements freely orchestrated in 1958 by Godfried Devreese *''Silhouetten'' for Orchestra (1925) *''Voorspel tot Teirlincks "De vertraagde film"'' (Overture to Teirlinck's "De Vertraagde Film") for Orchestra (1923) *''Twintig eenvoudige oefeningen'' (20 Simple Exercises) for Piano *''Twaalf stukken voor 4 handen'' (12 Pieces) for Piano 4-Hands

References

External links

Leo Smit Foundation
(in English and Dutch) 1900 births 1943 deaths Dutch Ashkenazi Jews Dutch male classical composers Dutch classical composers Dutch Sephardi Jews 20th-century classical composers Dutch classical pianists Musicians from Amsterdam Dutch people who died in Sobibor extermination camp Dutch Jews who died in the Holocaust Jewish classical composers Jewish classical pianists Dutch civilians killed in World War II 20th-century classical pianists Sephardi Jews who died in the Holocaust Male classical pianists 20th-century Dutch composers 20th-century Dutch male musicians {{Netherlands-bio-stub