MAARTEN BON
Period
20-08-1933 - 19-10-2003
Genre
classical, componist, contemporary classical music, piano
Online
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), ...
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.
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.
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.
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.
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'.
2003
Maarten Bon dies in Amsterdam on October 19.
Discography Maarten Bon
Albums | Singles | Compilations | Other | Guestperformance
Stravinsky - Debussy
Act | Maarten Bon |
Type and year | CD, 1992 |
Label | Channel Classics, CCS 4992 |
In the discography you will find all recordings that have been released listed chronologically. We restrict ourselves to the title, the type of audio, year of publication or recording, label, list of guest musicians, plus any comments on the issue.
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