Theo Smit Sibinga, Composer in the Dutch East Indies

‘Theo Smit Sibinga’s music is transparent and melodic; he felt not only attracted to modern French culture but also to the beauty of the ancient civilization of the Indonesian archipelago which had influenced him during his twenty years in the tropics.’ (Everard van Royen the director of the Amsterdam Music Lyceum, 1958) As a composer Smit Sibinga remained relatively unknown in The Netherlands since he was not the kind of man to put himself in the forefront. Many of his manuscripts were lost during his imprisonment in the camps on the island of Java in the Dutch East Indies.