Leo Kok

Leo Kok was born in Amsterdam on November 24, 1893. His Portuguese-Jewish mother died during childbirth; his father died when he was eight years old. After graduating from the Rotterdam Maritime Academy he went on to study piano at the Conservatory in The Hague. Willem Pijper taught him composition; Kok admired him for his experimental style. Supposedly Kok played the Dutch premiere of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue.

Kok was a man of many tallents; a gifted football player, a pianist of the highest level, a vocal coach, a composer and also had a great interest in literature and politics. 

In 1919, he married the extravagant singer Hetty Marx but was regularly working as a pianist and conductor aboard a cruise liner travelling between between Rotterdam and Rio de Janeiro. In the 1920s and 1930s he was living alternatively in Paris and Ascona and worked as a vocal coach and  he apparently had an excellent baritone voice. As of 1924, he performed with violinists Lennart von Zweyberg and Lidus Klein-van Giltay and other musicians. He spent a year in Berlin as accompanist of among others, the German dancer Charlotte Bara to whom he dedicated the last of his Trois danses exotiques for piano. Kok began occasionally conducting at At the Teatro San Materno and in the nearby Kursaal at Locarno.

With his outspoken political views, he fought in the Spanish Civil War in 1936 on the side of the Republicans. He was captured and imprisoned for a time in Portugal. He suffered a similar fate against the Italian fascists. During World War II, he was a militant fighter for the Resistance. Concert tours in Spain, Portugal and Italy were the perfect cover-up for intelligence work but as a spy for the British, he was arrested in 1943 and was political prisoner. He underwent torture in Buchenwald - was hung on his wrists - forcing an end to his career as a pianist. After the war Leo Kok lived alternately in Paris and Ascona.

Kok's music has a distinctive, personal style, influenced by Debussyian impressionism. He shows a predilection for dance rhythms with a touch of exoticism and especially his songs have a dark, German romantic nature. His collaboration with the oriental-inspired dancer, Charlotte Bara and his passion for literature have left their marks. All his music has a melancholic undertone, with the early loss of his parents atributed to the mornful themes.

His preferred music output was for small scale works. His Trois danses exotiques and Enfance remain two of his most popular piano works.

Leo Kok died on August 7 1992.

A more detailed biography can be found here.