Auguste van Biene

Auguste van Biene (16 May 1849 – 23 January 1913) was a Dutch composer, cellist and actor. He became best known for his composition The Broken Melody, performed by the composer as part of a musical play of the same name.

Van Biene grew up in Rotterdam and displayed a musical interest as a youth. After some private studies with Adrien Francois Servais at the Brussels Conservatory he moved to London to seek work as a performer. Van Biene was discovered by Sir Michael Costa, who hired him to play the cello in his Covent Garden orchestra in November 1867, eventually promoting him to principal cellist.

In 1878 van Biene was a touring musical director for Richard D'Oyly Carte's Comedy Opera Company, and in the 1880s he conducted successful light operas and Victorian burlesques. By the 1880s he had also become a theatrical manager as well as an actor and playwright. As a cellist he was invited to be an examiner at the Royal Academy of Music in 1884. In 1892 he commissioned, wrote the score for, and starred in a musical play, the highly successful The Broken Melody, in which he toured for many years. He died on 23 January 1913 while on stage at the Brighton Hippodrome.

Van Biene was born Ezechiel van Biene, in Rotterdam, the son of an actor. His parents were Joseph Abraham van Biene and Eva (née van Norden). He showed a musical talent at an early age and studied the cello with Adrien Francois Servais at the Brussels Conservatory. In 1864 he began playing as a section cellist with the Rotterdam Opera House Orchestra. Three years later, when he was 18, he moved to London to seek work as a performer.

Van Biene found life as a young musician difficult, and he lived for several months in poverty, busking on street corners to pay for rent and food. His fortunes changed when Sir Michael Costa heard him performing on the street in Hanover Square. Costa was so impressed that he hired van Biene to play the cello in his Covent Garden orchestra in November 1867. Over the next 10 years, van Biene performed as the cellist for many different orchestras and eventually became the principal cellist in Costa's orchestra. He never forgot the help Costa had given him, and for the rest of his life he marked the anniversary of their first meeting by playing in the streets of London's West End, raising money for performers' charities.

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