Sem Dresden

Samuel “Sem” Dresden (April 20, 1881 in Amsterdam – July 30, 1957 at The Hague) was a Dutch conductor, composer, and teacher. Life Dresden was born into a Jewish diamond-broking family and initially studied musical theory with Fred Roeske and composition with Bernard Zweers. He studied violin with Johannes Cornelis Dudok and Felice Togni. On the strength of a promising piano piece, he was sent to study composition and conducting under Hans Pfitzner at the Stern Conservatory in Berlin between 1903–5 and was there encouraged to take an interest in Impressionist music. After returning to the Netherlands, he was until 1914 a choral conductor, as choirmaster at Laren, Amsterdam and Tiel. It was during this period that he married the noted alto Jacoba Dhont, by whom he was to have two sons. Then until 1926 he directed the nine-member Madrigal Society, which earned an international reputation for its painstaking performances of Renaissance, Baroque and contemporary choral music, and afterwards, from 1928 to 1940, a larger chamber choir in Haarlem. To the repertoire of all of these he contributed compositions and arrangements of his own. From 1915 he lectured on musical subjects, both in t