MAARTEN BON

Maarten Bon

Maarten Bon is a pianist, composer and arranger. He performs often as a piano soloist on the radio and in recitals in France, Italy, Germany, England, Spain and the United States. He teaches the piano at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. Bon founds the Amsterdam Piano Quartet (later Quintet), ...
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Instruments

componist, piano

Mentioned in the biography of

1940   Willem Frederik Bon

Biography Maarten Bon

Maarten Bon is a pianist, composer and arranger. He performs often as a piano soloist on the radio and in recitals in France, Italy, Germany, England, Spain and the United States. He teaches the piano at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. Bon founds the Amsterdam Piano Quartet (later Quintet), and he administers the music archives of his grandfather, Johannes Jacobus Raaff, and of his brother Willem Frederik Bon (1940-1983). Bon is the composer of a modest number of works. In addition, he makes celebrated arrangements of Igor Stravinsky’s 'The Rite of Spring' and 'Petrushka', as well as Arnold Schoenberg’s 'Five Pieces for Orchestra', op. 16, and Claude Debussy’s 'Jeux'. “What’s important is that the music you write is interesting enough to be performed. It’s of no consequence whether the performers know anything about my personal life, with whom I studied, how I earn my living, where I was born, etc.” (Maarten Bon, 2002).

1933

Maarten Bon is born in Amsterdam on August 20.

1940

Maarten Bon takes his first piano lessons from his maternal grandfather, the composer Johannes Jacobus Raaff. His brother and sisters also become professional musicians: Willem Frederik Bon is a composer and conductor, Marja Bon a pianist and Charlotte Bon a violinist.

Charlotte Bon Marja Bon Willem Frederik Bon

1950 - 1958

Bon studies the piano with Net Cornelis and Herman Sachs and at the Amsterdam Muzieklyceum with Jaap Spaanderman and Theo Bruins. He later studies in Paris with Noëmie Perugia (vocal accompaniment), Magda Tagliaferro and Jean-Jacques Painchaud, and subsequently with Maria Stroo in the Netherlands. He also studies the bassoon with Anton Muhlenbaumer and Brian Pollard; the violin with Dick van der Veen; and composition with Carel Porcelijn, Herman Sachs, Theo Bruins and Kees van Baaren.

Kees van Baaren Theo Bruins

1959 - 1970

Maarten Bon forms a violin-piano duo with his wife, the violinist Jeannelotte Hertzberger. He is the pianist of the Kunstmaand Orchestra and a piano accompanist at ballet classes and musical examinations, and for the School Concert Foundation.

1970 - 1993

Bon is a pianist-accompanist with the NOS [Netherlands Broadcasting Foundation] and the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra.

1976 - 1981

Maarten Bon develops an ambitious plan to arrange Stravinsky’s 'The Rite of Spring' for four pianos. Though in his will Stravinsky had expressly forbidden arrangements of his work, his heirs give Bon exclusive rights for the project. To perform the piece, Bon forms a quartet of pianists in 1981 composed of his sister Marja Bon, Gerrit Hommerson, Ronald Brautigam and himself. He becomes best known for the spectacular 'Rite of Spring' arrangement. Its success prompts him to make more Stravinsky arrangements.

Ronald Brautigam (2)

1984

'Whistle for a Friend', for solo flute (1980), wins a prize at the composition competition in Ancona, Italy.

1990

Bon forms the Amsterdam Piano Quartet with Gerard Bouwhuis, Sepp Grotenhuis and Yoko Abe, for the performance of the 'Rite of Spring' in New York.

Gerard Bouwhuis

1998

The Amsterdam Piano Quartet becomes a Quintet with Ellen Corver. In Europe, the United States, Canada and Japan, it performs original quintet compositions and arrangements like Stravinsky’s 'Petrushka'.

Ellen Corver

2003

Maarten Bon dies in Amsterdam on October 19.

Photos Maarten Bon

Audio/Video Maarten Bon