Gerard Bunk (born 4 March 1888 in Rotterdam; died 13 September 1958 in Kamen) was a German-Dutch organist, pianist, harpsichordist, choirmaster and composer.
Life and work
Gerard Bunk was a student at the Rotterdam Conservatory of the Maatschappij tot Bevordering der Toonkunst since 1901. The focus of his education was on piano studies with Anton Verheij.
After a short stay in Hull and London (with the pianist Mark Hambourg), he came to Bielefeld in 1906 to the piano teacher Hans Hermanns, whom he followed to the Hamburg Conservatory. In 1907 Bunk became a piano teacher at the conservatory in Bielefeld.
He trained himself at the organ mainly autodidactically, whereby his pianistic skills paid off. On 20 June 1907, Bunk gave his first organ concert in the Bielefeld Synagogue. Here and in the Neustädter Marienkirche he played cyclical concert series in the following years.
On 5 May 1910, Bunk stood in for Karl Straube at the first concert of the Dortmund Max-Reger-Festival and took turns with Reger at the "giant organ" of St. Reinold's Church, which had been built the previous year. Reger then recommended him to the Dortmund Hüttner Conservatory, where Bunk taught piano and later organ playing. Enthused by the splendour of the sound of the organ in the St. Reinold's Church, Bunk declared it his life's goal to become organist of this instrument. First, however, he worked as organist at the Old Catholic Krimkapelle since 1912, and at the St. Petri Church in Dortmund since 1920. Bunk saw himself at the peak of his career when he was finally elected organist of the "epoch-making organ work" of St. Reinold's Church, considered the reference instrument of the Alsatian organ reform (Walcker V/105), and conductor of the Dortmund Bach Choir in 1925. From 1929 onwards, Bunk organised fortnightly "Orgel-Feierstunden"(Organ recitals), in which he performed a large part of the organ literature known at the time. Through the Orgel-Feierstunden, Bunk achieved the reputation of one of the leading organ artists of his time; the press called him "the living organ story". Bunk led various music associations since 1912. Among the chamber music associations to which he belonged during his life, the "Dortmund Trio" between 1920 and 1929 with the Dutch violinist and later conductor Paul van Kempen was probably the most significant.
In 1922, the Riemann Musiklexikon lists him as a "sought-after accompanist"; in fact, Bunk assisted numerous vocal and instrumental soloists at the piano; only the baritone Heinrich Schlusnus should be mentioned here as an example. From 1943 to the beginning of 1944, he toured extensively through southern Germany and Austria with the Viennese cellist Slavko Popoff; the concerts were often organised by the NS organisation "Kraft durch Freude".
Since the beginnings of radio, Bunk could be heard in radio broadcasts of Westdeutscher Rundfunk, Radio Hilversum and others. In 1928 he obtained German citizenship. In the same year he met Albert Schweitzer, with whom he had already corresponded since 1910, at his organ concert in St. Reinold's Church. In 1930 Bunk also became organist at the Dortmund Synagogue organ, also built by Walcker, a post he resigned from on 11 May 1933 under unknown circumstances. In 1936, he was appointed Kirchenmusikdirektor by the Old Prussian Protestant High Church Council. In 1937 he bought a harpsichord from the Neupert company, on which he now also gave concerts.
With the destruction of St. Reinold's on 23 May 1943, the "Orgel-Feierstunden" were suspended. After the end of the war, Bunk conducted the Bach Choir on concert tours through the Rhineland and Westphalia. In 1954 he resumed the "Orgel-Feierstunden" on a small interim organ in the partly newly built Reinoldikirche (north aisle) with his arrangement of Bach's The Art of Fugue for the organ. In 1958 he inaugurated a new Walcker organ in St. Reinold's, which he was subsequently able to play once more.