Prof Gerrit Bon

Prof Gerrit Bon 

Oboist

(b. 23 June 1938)

Prof Gerrit Bon was born in Pretoria on 23 June 1938, son of the homonymous Dutch-born organist and composer, who had settled in South Africa in the 1920s. After receiving his first music lessons from his mother, the young Gerrit Bon was a violin student of Harold Ketelbey for five years, but, while still at school, he abandoned the violin and began to concentrate on the oboe under the guidance of Jos de Groen.

In 1957 he went to Holland where he continued his studies under Jaap and Haakon Stotijn. On his return to South Africa in 1958, he accepted a position as third oboist with the SABC Symphony Orchestra, but by 1961 he had been promoted to acting principal oboist of the orchestra, a position he permanently filled from 1962 to 1972. He frequently played as soloist or in chamber groups, in radio broadcasts as well as in concerts, and gave the first South African performances of works by Henze and Penderecki. 

Gerrit Bon was appointed lecturer in woodwind instruments in the music department of the University of Natal University in 1972. His eight-year tenure as director of the South African College of Music at UCT Director (1987-1994), was marked by the introduction of Jazz as a specialisation in 1989.

Source

Malan, Dr. Jacque P., ed. South African Music Encyclopaedia. Vol. 1. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1979, 207.