Johannes Nicolaas Helstone

Johannes Helstone, born Nicodemus Johannes Helstone (11 January 1853 – 24 April 1927), was a Surinamese composer, pianist and writer. He is best known for his 1906 opera Het Pand der Goden.

Biography Helstone was born on the Moravian mission Berg en Dal on 11 January 1853 to Proserpina Ulm and Doris Nicolaas Helstone. He was born enslaved and was granted freedom at age ten, when the Dutch abolished slavery. Professionally, Helstone was a teacher, and a church organist.

Other musical works include psalms, a mazurka brillante (1889), a toccata, Prinses Juliana Mars (1903) in honour of the birth of Princess Juliana, Emancipatie Mars (1913) and many songs in Dutch and German. The book is slightly controversial, because Helstone encouraged the Creole population to learn Dutch. In 1924 and 1925, Helstone wrote a five parts series about proverbs in Sranan Tongo. because Helstone had been the organist of the church for many years.

In 1959, Trefossa wrote God zij met ons Suriname, a new national anthem for Suriname. Originally Trefossa used a melody by Helstone. The lyrics were accepted, however the national anthem uses the 1867 melody.

In 2006, the art exhibition hall of the was named after Nicodemus Johannes Helstone.

On 15 February 2024, Otto Tausk conducted the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in the Dutch premiere of Het Pand der Goden in collaboration with Capella Amsterdam. The initiative for this performance came from the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and their correspondence with Helstone's great-grandniece Astrid Helstone: they wanted to perform the opera again and went in search of the score. This led them to John Helstone, the composer's great-nephew, who had the manuscripts of the Dutch and German versions of the opera in his possession. Composer and director Leonard Evers used these to create an adaptation suitable for the present day, using the Dutch version for the text and the German version for the music. A video recording of the performance was released online, in addition to audio recordings being made available on Apple Music Classical and Spotify. Durgersdijk also published a biography on Helstone in 2024, titled "Een opera voor Suriname. Over Het pand der goden van J.N. Helstone".