Andrée Bonhomme

Andrée Marie Clémence Bonhomme (1 December 1905 – 1 March 1982) was a Dutch composer. Life Andrée Bonhomme was born in Maastricht on December 1, 1905. She studied from age seven piano with Maria Gielen. In 1920 Gielen with her pupils joined the Maastricht Music School. Since then, the fifteen year old girl also studied music theory and composition with Henri Hermans. She went to a Preparatory Teacher Training College and received teaching certificates in 1924 and 1927. In the meantime she studied piano on a professional level and got her certificates in 1929 (theory) and 1930 (practical). In 1927 she got a job as accompagneur at keyboards (piano, celesta) with the Maastricht Municipal Orchestra and made her debut as pianist and composer in 1928. From 1930 to 1937 she intermittently took lessons in composition with Darius Milhaud in Paris. After completing her studies, Bonhomme worked as a composer and as a pianist with the Maastricht Orchestra, and in 1932 took a position teaching music theory and piano at the Heerlen music school. Bonhomme wrote a number of works and songs on French texts, but her career declined during the World War II, as she refused to sign a “non-Jewish declar