Margreet Bongers

'As a child, my father always played oboist Han de Vries and Bach cantatas. So from the age of four I wanted to play the oboe too.' When that wasn't possible at music school a few years later, it became the violin. She even became concertmaster of the Wageningen University Orchestra. She briefly studied violin at the Amsterdam Conservatory, where she soon switched to the bassoon and took lessons from Joep Terwey and Brian Pollard.
Within a short time, Magreet Bongers became a much sought-after bassoonist in our country. Even during her studies she became solo bassoonist with the Netherlands Ballet Orchestra. She is a member of ASKO|Schönberg, where she worked with Reinbert de Leeuw, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Louis Andriessen, among others, played with the Netherlands Wind Ensemble and was one of the founders of the Combattimento Consort.
She also specialized in historical bassoon playing on old instruments. As such, she played in the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra conducted by Ton Koopman, the Collegium Vocale Gent and was first bassoonist for eleven years with the Orchestre de Champs Elysees under Phillippe Herreweghe.
Since 1997, for more than 20 years, Margreet Bongers has been solo bassoonist with the Netherlands Philharmonic.

Podcast with Margreet Bongers
She was studying violin at the conservatory when a bike ride to the bakery changed the course of her musical career. Margreet Bongers talks about this special encounter at the traffic light, the social aspect of her work and about her protest against the construction of the Stopera, where she eventually played herself at the opening.