Jan Broekhuis
Jan Broekhuis, known by the stage name John Brookhouse McCarthy, was a Dutch composer, conductor and arranger. He was born in Amsterdam on 25 February 1901 and died in Lucerne on 18 March 1974.
Broekhuis studied piano at the Amsterdam Conservatory with Julius Röntgen and Bernard Zweers, having previously taken lessons from Evert Cornelis and Egbert Veen. He completed all his diplomas within three years and received the distinction prize for piano. After graduating, he taught at the conservatory in Limoges, France, gave concerts there, and became conductor at the Théâtre Français in Bordeaux. From 1931 he conducted operettas in Paris, Lyon and Amsterdam.
He later worked for Dutch radio as a conductor, composer and arranger. In 1933–34 he wrote three pieces for De Jantjes, the first Dutch sound film, and served as its musical director and arranger. Its best-known songs included “Because I Love You So Much” and “Turning, Always Turning”; the former became an evergreen and was recorded by Herman Brood and Willeke Alberti.
Broekhuis wrote numerous songs for revues and cabaret, including all the hit songs for the Peter Pech revues created by Jan Hahn. He also wrote for Heintje Davids and for Willy Walden and Piet Muijselaar, the duo Snip and Snap, including the well-known song “Snip Does Not Understand What Snap Understands.” Other popular songs included “It Will Be All Right Again,” performed by Dick Willebrandts and his orchestra, and “We Want a Goal,” a hit in Max van Praag’s 1950s recording.
His concert works included a violin sonata dedicated to and performed by Jacques Thibaud, three nocturnes, a burlesque for cello and piano, and a Ballade for piano and orchestra. Some of these works were performed on radio during the 1960s, including by his own trio with Willy and Jean Busch. The Promenade Orchestra, conducted by Benedict Silberman, performed his Ballade.
Broekhuis also worked in England and the United States, including New York, Los Angeles and Hollywood. Before 1931 he made guest appearances in Paris, where he accompanied Mistinguett at the Folies Bergère. He led many orchestral groups in the Netherlands and abroad, conducted operettas at the Carré Theatre, and worked on revues by Heintje Davids and René Sleeswijk's Dutch Revue, the Snip and Snap Revue. He conducted Charles Trenet's Dutch tour in 1945 and the orchestra for Josephine Baker's farewell in 1956, and later spent several seasons during the 1960s as conductor of the Capital Operetta.
He eventually settled in Switzerland, where he continued to achieve success as a concert pianist for many years. He was buried in Lucerne.