To our great sadness, presenter, programme maker and music journalist Thijs Bonger passed away on Tuesday, June 4th.
In the 20 years that he worked for the Concertzender, Thijs created beautiful, long-running series such as Geniale Muziekvrienden, Lastige Leerling, Herkansing voor Hummel, De piano-etude, van oefening tot kunst en Gesprek onder Acht Ogen.
The latter programme was about lesser-known string quartets by Haydn. Thijs had great admiration for Haydn and felt that this composer was still underappreciated.
The passion for music always resonated in Thijs’ programs. His goal was to take his listeners along and interest them in the music he found important. He did this in such a convincing way that he attracted a very unique and new audience of listeners to him with his programmes.
A few weeks before his death and just before his voice gave out, Thijs was given the opportunity to talk about music and in particular about his great passion Joseph Haydn in the Bach & Co programme. That was in the Bach & Co programme, two special editions, which can be listened to here: guidetext part 1, and guidetext part 2
We will miss Thijs and wish his family and girlfriend our sincerest condolences.
