Albert Huybrechts

Biography

Albert Huybrechts (12 February 1899 in Dinant – 21 February 1938 in Brussels) was a Belgian composer.

Life

Albert Huybrechts was born into a musical family. His father, Joseph-Jacques, was a double bassist in the orchestra of the Royal Theatre of La Monnaie, and his great grand-uncle was the cellist Adrien-François Servais.
Huybrechts enrolled at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels at age 11, where he studied under Joseph Jongen, P. Marchand, and Léon Du Bois. In 1915, Huybtechts won an award for oboe playing at the Conservatory.
In 1920, Huybrechts' father died; he left the composer a small inheritance. He won a prize for fugue with Jongen in 1922, and in 1926 his String Quartet No. 1 won first prize at the Frost-Coolidge Music Festival in Ojai, California. A few days later, his Violin Sonata won the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge award.
The Wall Street crash of 1929 depleted Huybrechts' inheritance; a thwarted love affair in the 1930s added further stress. In January 1938, at Jean Absil's recommendation, Huybrechts was appointed as a junior lecturer in harmony at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels. On 21 February, he died unexpectedly of kidney failure.