Johan Franco Collection
Biography
Collection Scope and Contents
Key to Finding Aids Terms / Scores and Parts: Alphabetical List / Scores and Parts: Chronological List / Authored by the Composer / Biographical and Bibliographical Material / Correspondence / Programs, Program Notes, etc. / Reviews, Publicity and Newspaper Articles / Sketches and Sketchbooks / Supplemental Material / Introduction
BIOGRAPHY
Johan Henri Gustave Franco was born in Zaandam, Netherlands on July 12, 1908. The son of architect, S. Franco, and artist, Margaretha Gosschalk, who was also a singer and pianist, Johan began improvising on the piano at age four. He composed his first piece, Fantasy about Princess Erea, when he was ten and a half. He attended the Amsterdam Conservatory from 1929-1934 and studied with Dutch composer Willem Pijper for five years. During this same time period he studied law at the University of Amsterdam and then architecture and furniture design at the Kunstniverheid Institute. His First Symphony premiered in Rotterdam in 1934.
Franco arrived in the United States in 1934, and for fourteen years he lived in New York City. He became a naturalized citizen in 1942, and during World War II served in the United States Army, and later in the Air Force. He and Eloise Bauder Lavrischeff, an author and poet, and the mother of John T. and David T. Lavrischeff, were married in Washington, D.C. on March 28, 1948. They settled in Virginia Beach, and lived there until his death on April 14, 1988.
His musical compositions include five symphonies, five lyric concertos, six string quartets, and a number of works for the carillon, classical guitar, flute, and saxophone. He was awarded first prize at the Delius Festival in Jacksonville, Florida in 1974. His winning piece, Ode, and several other of his compositions were written to texts composed by his wife, Eloise. He was a charter member and treasurer of Southeastern Composers League; a member of Broadcast Music, Inc.; American Composers Alliance; Guilde des Carillonneurs de France; and an associate member of Guild of Carillonneurs in North America.
Johan Franco is listed in several biographical sources, including American Composers; A Biographical Dictionary, Something About the Author, Who's Who in the South and Southwest, and Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians. Biographical information above was taken from these sources.
The Johan Franco Collection contains just over 150 scores spanning the six decades of the 1930s through the 1980s. It also contains some biographical material, programs, and reviews. A larger collection of Franco's material is also housed at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.