Sophia Rosa Berghout (14 December 1909 - 22 March 1993) was a Dutch

harp The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various ways, standing or sitting, and in orchestras or ...

ist. Her obituary in ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'' called her "arguably the most influential harpist this century".

Career

She was born in

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...

on 14 December 1909 and started playing the harp when she was 15 years old. She studied the harp at the Amsterdam Conservatoire with . She played in the

Amsterdam Concertgebouw The Royal Concertgebouw (, ) is a concert hall in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The Dutch term "concertgebouw" translates into English as "concert building". Its superb Architectural acoustics, acoustics place it among the finest concert halls in the ...

, as second harp 1933-1945 and principal harp 1945–1960, as well as having a successful solo career. She taught at the Amsterdam Conservatoire and then, from 1974, at the Maastricht Conservatoire. Together with Maria Korchinska (1895-1979) she established the International Harpweeks held at Queekhoven near

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

in the 1960s; these developed into the World Harp Congress.

Personal life

Berghout married Johannes den Hertog, pianist and assistant conductor of the Amsterdam Concertgebouw: they divorced after a short time. She died in

Doorn Doorn is a town in the municipality of Utrechtse Heuvelrug in the central Netherlands, in the province of Utrecht. The town is famous for being the final residence of Wilhelm II. History In a document from 885 to 896 the settlement is called ...

on 22 March 1993, aged 83.

References

1909 births 1993 deaths Dutch harpists Dutch women harpists Conservatorium van Amsterdam alumni Academic staff of the Conservatorium van Amsterdam Academic staff of the Maastricht Academy of Music 20th-century Dutch women musicians {{Netherlands-musician-stub