teacher of, of course, the bassoon and also of the ensemble class. In this last capacity he was able to select the best students, among others Joep Terweij (bassoon), Martine Bakker (flute), George Pieterson (clarinet), Jaap Verhaar (French horn) and Edo de Waart (oboe). With these students he founded the Aulos Wind Ensemble, a group he expounded in 1959 and renamed the Netherlands Wind Ensemble. Being the founder, conductor and artistic director of the Netherlands Wind Ensemble Thom de Klerk has made ground-breaking achievements in rediscovering manuscripts the great composers wrote for wind ensembles and that were thought lost or that were forgotten over time. To this end he travelled the world to research the music libraries. He also retreaded many works for string ensembles to fit the requirements of a wind ensemble. Until the foundation of the Netherlands Wind Ensemble wind ensembles were a rarity, also worldwide. In the Netherlands only the Concertgebouw Quartet and Quintet existed, both of which de Klerk was the bassoonist. It was de Klerk’s aim with the Netherlands Wind Ensemble to create the wind-counterpart of the world-famous Italian string chamber orchestra I Musici which was founded seven years earlier. Within a relative short period of time under the artistic direction of Thom de Klerk the Netherlands Wind Ensemble achieved prominent international acclaim. In the time frame he considered ending his work for the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra to be able to dedicate all of his energy to music - and archive research and the artistic - and music direction of the Netherlands Wind Ensemble, at fifty-four years old Thom de Klerk unexpectedly died. References The Concertgebouw Orchestra under the magnifying glass - investigating the intricacies of the symphony orchestra (Het Concertgebouw onder de loupe), Louis Metz, Broekmans & van Poppel - Amsterdam, 1955 The Concertgebouw Orchestra in images, Louis Metz, Broekmans & van Poppel- Amsterdam, 1958 The Concertgebouw Orchestra 75 years, Marius Flothuis (ed.), J. M. Meulenhoff publishers - Amsterdam, 1963 Woodwind instruments and their history, Anthony Baines, Faber and Faber Ltd - London History and chronicle of the Concertgebouw and the Concertgebouw Orchestra, Part one and two, (Historie en kroniek van het Concertgebouw en het Concertgebouworkest), Nico Steffen (ed.), Wallburg Press, Zutphen - the Netherlands, 1988 Discography of the Concertgebouw Orchestra (Discografie van het Concertgebouworkest), Jan van Bart, Wallburg Press, Zutphen - the Netherlands, 1989 The History of the Netherlands Wind Ensemble, by Joep