Bonner, Eugene (MacDonald)

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Bonner, Eugene (MacDonald)

Bonner, Eugene (MacDonald), American composer and music critic; b. Jacksonville, N.C., 1889; d. Taormina, Sicily, Dec. 8, 1983. He studied at the Peabody Cons, of Music in Baltimore and received training in piano with Bachner and Hutcheson, in organ with Philips, and in composition with Bois and Brockway; during a European sojourn (1911–17), pursued studies in composition and instrumentation with Scott, Leh-mann, and Bedford; during a second European sojourn, took courses in instrumentation and conducting with Wolff in Paris (1921–27). Returning to the U.S., he became music ed. of Outlook Magazine (1927–29); subsequently was a music critic for the Brooklyn Eagle, the Daily Mirror, Cue Magazine, and the N.Y. Herald Tribune, and managing ed. of the Musical Record. In 1955 he settled in Taormina.

Works

DRAMATIC: Opera: Barbara Frietchie (1921); Celui qui Épousa une Femme Muette (1923); The Venetian Glass Nephew (1927); The Gods of the Mountain (1936); Frankie and Johnnie (1945). incidental music to:The Young Alexander (1929). orch.:White Nights (1925); Taormina, little suite (1939); Concertino for Piano and String Orch. (1945). chamber: Piano Quintet (1925); Suite Sicilienne for Violin and Piano (1926). vocal:Whispers of Heavenly Death, 3 songs for Voice and Orch. (1922); Flutes for Voice and 4 Instruments (1923).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire