Rob Pronk
Rob Pronk was of Indonesian origin. At the time of his birth in 1925, there was no independent country of Indonesia as the islands which form this archipelago were part of the Dutch East Indies.
His father was a railway engineer. As a child he was fascinated by jazz music when he heard Duke Ellington's "Mood Indigo" on the radio (Ellington also remained his role model later). He received his first piano lessons at the age of eight.
In his early teens, Rob learned some basic arranging skills from Jerry van Rooyen, whom he had already met when he was on the road in the Dutch East Indies for troop support, but he was largely self-taught and learned through trial and error, much like the early years of one of his arranging idols - Gil Evans.
In 1947 he went to Holland with his brother Ruud (a drummer), where he studied economics in Rotterdam and earned a Bachelor's degree, largely to please his parents.
But he then decided to "follow his heart" and attend the Royal Conservatory in The Hague where he studied, trumpet, piano and music theory.
In 1949 he visited New York with the brothers Jerry and Ack van Rooyen , with whom he continued to play in a group he formed called the "Rob Pronk Boptet."
In 1951 his boptet was temporarily fully integrated into the orchestra of Ernst van't Hoff, with whom he went on tour in Spain.
Throughout the 1950's he worked with a number of Scandinavian and Northern European musicians, including the baritone saxophonist Lars Gullin, both on trumpet and as a small group arranger.
At the end of the 1950's, he was hired to play trumpet in the Kurt Edelhagen orchestra, where he also became one of the main arrangers (from 1958). He also arranged for Benny Carter during one of the Jazz icons European tours and also studied briefly with him.
Beginning in the late 1960's his big break came when he was hired as an arranger with the Metropole Orchestra, for which he wrote over 1200 arrangements in over 30 years. From 1975 to 1996 he was often a guest conductor of the Metropole Orchestra.
In addition to Duke Ellinton and Gil Evans, Rob credits his influences as Billy May, Bill Holman, Al Cohn, and Quincy Jones.
Rob Pronk also taught arrangement and composition at the Rotterdam Conservatory for many years.