Anna Bon

Biography

Anna Bon di Venezia (of Venice) was a composer and singer who spent her childhood in Venice where she was active at the Ospedale della Pietà, an orphanage/musical institution known for its renowned all-female musical ensembles. In 1755, she and her family moved to Bayreuth, Germany to work as court musicians for Margrave Friedrich of Brandenburg Culmbach and his wife, the composer Wilhelmine von Bayreuth.

While in Bayreuth, Bon published three collections of her work: 6 Flute Sonatas (op. 1, 1756), 6 Harpsichord Sonatas (op. 2, 1757), and 6 Divertimenti (op. 3, 1759) for two flutes and continuo. All three of these collections, which were published by the woman-run firm Schmid in Nuremberg, were priced higher than similar collections by lesser-known composers, demonstrating Bon's contemporary popularity. Additionally, Bon used the title pages of these collections to construct a specific persona which made her appear both "self-assured and modest" to the amateur (largely male) musicians who purchased her music. These pages have also been used to gather biographical information about Bon, on whom relatively little survives.

After Princess Wilhelmine's death in 1758, the musical culture at Bayreuth declined, and the Bon family moved to Austria. In 1762, Anna Bon arrived at Eisenstadt to work at the celebrated Esterházy court, where she remained until at least 1765. Today, her music has been noted for bridging the late Baroque and early Classical periods and effectively mixing both formal and harmonic aspects from these eras.