Napoleon Distelmans
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Napoleon Distelmans became professor at the Antwerp Conservatoire after winning the prestigious Prix de Rome viola which awarded him a scholarship to study with one of the leading viola players of this era in London.His father was a poor shoemaker with high musical ambitions.He wanted to create an orchestra with only his own offspring...As his frail wife died while giving birth to his 6th child, this lofty goal had to limit itself to the formation of a string quartet.The language of tuition at the Antwerp Conservatoire had just been changed from French to Dutch at the instigation of Flemish nationalist composer Peter Benoit when the Distelmans brothers enrolled there.The school remained a breeding ground for Flemish nationalism long afterwards.The cello playing brother of the quartet particularly became a fierce nationalist while the others didn’t, leading to the dissolution of the quartet during WW2.Napoleon also was the viola soloist for some time in the Orchestra of the Antwerp Zoological Society, the concerts of which were quite reputed in their day, attracting the likes of Mahler, Ravel, Stravinsky and Rachmaninov to conduct their own works there in the hall next to Central Railway Station.
