Younger brother of Jacobus, who inherited also the musical talent from his parents and grandparents
Gerrit and Christina.
Hendrik (Henri) Bosmans was known as a very able cellist. In his youth he was a pupil of J.Giese at the Royal Conservatory at The Hague. At the time of his marriage to Sara Benedicts, Henri was 2nd concertmaster of the’ Orchestre of Paleis voor Volksvlijt’ in Amsterdam.
Henri and Sara knew each other for years and had formed a trio with violinist Willem Kes, Sara on the grand piano and Henri at the cello.
A concert by them on 15th January showed up in their cashbooks telling us how well they did financially. Over 100 guilders they earned that week compare that with a wage of a tradesman of 6 guilders a week. Back in 1884, Henri got to know the Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg. Together they played his Cello Sonata op.36
Sara came from a very large and musical family herself, both her parents were Jewish.
Her father Benedictus Benedicts earned his living by giving violin lessons and from him, Sara received her first piano lessons. At the age of 15 she gained a distinction from King Willem III that allowed her to study abroad. The King would have liked to see his protégé travel to Rome, to be under the care of no other than, Franz Liszt, but her parents thought that was a little too far from their sight and instead send her to Cologne to study under James Kwast and Ferdinand Hiller.
Sara grew into a brilliant pianist and at one stage played ‘quatre-mains’ with Johannes Brahms.