I thank you for your letter . . . and am happy to send you my background for the interest of "The World's Bassoonists". I congratulate your initiative in founding the newsletter and look forward to future issues.
I was born in 1926. I started study at the age of 13 on a Heckel bassoon (17 keys). From 1942 I began my serious study with Professor Arnold Frühauf in Berlin . . . also reedmaking. Until 1944 I studied at the State's Academy High School for Music in Berlin with Professor Otto Glass and in the Hochschule (special music school) in Leipzig with Professor Karl Schaefer. In 1949, after returning from war's-end detention, I continued studies with Georg Junge, solo bassoonist of the Gewandhaus Orchestra.
From 1950 to 1951 I was engaged in the Theater Orchestras in Nordhausen and Erfurt, both first and second bassoon. And since August, 1951, I have been bassoonist and contrabassoonist with the Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra.
In addition, since 1957, I have taught bassoon at the Conservatory Halle/Salle (from 1966 a special high school for music) in Leipzig.
I have been active for eight years with historical bassoons, and I play on a Steinkopf Dulcian in the ensemble "Capella fidiciensis" at the Institute of Musicology of the Marx-University. I perform in a baroque ensemble, the "Pro Arte Antiqua Lipsiensis," on an original baroque bassoon (Signed "I. A. CRONE - LEIPSIG ", ca. 1770-7 keys). It is loaned from the Instrument-Museum of the Marx-University.
I also am occupied intensively with bassoon history and its literature. These are the bassoon pieces which I have edited:
The Leipzig Music Instrument Museum of the Marx-University has a collection of over 40 bassoons of all types, among which is the oldest contrabassoon in the world (1714), which is in very good condition. (I believe by Andreas Eichentopf, of Nordhausen. Ed.)