Reine Colaço Osorio-Swaab

Reine Colaço Osorio-Swaab
(b. Amsterdam, Jan 16, 1881; d. Amsterdam, Apr 14,1971)

Dutch composer. Born to a Jewish family. She started playing piano at a young age. She married Samuel Colaço Osorio but only began her studies in composition after her husband’s death in 1923. She began her studies with Henk Badings, also one of the most prominent Dutch composers at the time and later with Ernest W. Mulder. Her works became popular in the Jewish Choirs in Amsterdam with her work 1933 “Herdenking aan het joodsche volk” text by Jacob Israël de Haan.

Works:

She focused on songs during 1920s and 30s often on poems by Jacques Perk, Paul Verlaine, R.M. Rilke and Stefan George. In 1939, she began writing for chamber music and various instruments which she continued with throughout her life. From 1947, Osorio-Swaab wrote many works with narrator, settings on biblical texts. Many of her works are published by Donemus Publishing Company and Broekmans en Van Poppel, Alsbach & Co.
For the list of works, contact agrafenina [at] gmail.com

Donemus

Atria

Dutch Music Institute

Recordings:

Further reading:

Forbidden Music Regained