Henk Badings

Henk Badings (hĕngk bä’dĭngz) (17 January 190726 June 1987) was an Indonesian-Dutch composer. Early life Born in Bandung, Java, Dutch East Indies, as the son of Herman Louis Johan Badings, an officer in the Dutch East Indies army, Hendrik Herman Badings became an orphan at 7 years old. Having returned to the Netherlands in 1915, Badings took up violin and piano, however was dissuaded by his guardians from pursuing a career in music. Badings enrolled at the Delft Polytechnical Institute (later the Technical University), graduating in 1931. He worked as a mining engineer and palaeontologist at Delft until 1937, after which he dedicated his life entirely to music. Though largely self-taught, he became a pupil of Willem Pijper, the doyen of Dutch composers at the time, but their musical views differed widely and after Pijper had attempted to discourage Badings from continuing as a composer, Badings broke off contact. Music career In 1930 Badings had his initial big musical success when his first cello concerto (he eventually wrote a second) was performed at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. Champions of his work included such eminent conductors as Eduard van Beinum and Willem Mengelberg.