) is a Dutch

Dutch people

The Dutch people are an ethnic group native to the Netherlands. They share a common culture and speak the Dutch language. Dutch people and their descendants are found in migrant communities worldwide, notably in Suriname, Chile, Brazil, Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, and the United...

 flutist.

Education

Following a gymnasium

Gymnasium (school)

A gymnasium is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools. The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, meaning a locality for both physical and intellectual...

 education in Alkmaar

Alkmaar

Alkmaar is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands, in the province of Noord Holland. Alkmaar is well known for its traditional cheese market. For tourists, it is a popular cultural destination.-History:...

, Zoon studied flute at the Sweelinck Conservatorium in Amsterdam

Amsterdam

Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...

 with Koos Verheul and Harrie Starreveld, graduating with honors. He continued his studies at the Banff Center for the Arts in Canada, where he took master class

Master class

A master class is a class given to students of a particular discipline by an expert of that discipline—usually music, but also painting, drama, or any of the arts....

es with Geoffrey Gilbert

Geoffrey Gilbert

Geoffrey Winzer Gilbert was an English flutist.He was born in Liverpool, and came to London in to join Sir Thomas Beecham's London Philharmonic Orchestra in 1933. He was the principal flute of the LPO at the age of 19 and held this position until the outbreak of World War II in 1939, when he...

 and András Adorján

Andras Adorjan

András Adorján is a Hungarian author and Grandmaster of chess , born in Budapest. He adopted his mother's surname Adorján in 1968....

.

Orchestras

As a teenager and during his studies, Zoon played in the Dutch National Youth Orchestra and the European Union Youth Orchestra

European Union Youth Orchestra

The European Union Youth Orchestra is a training orchestra for young people in the European Union. It is funded centrally by the European Union and by a number of EU member states...

, among others under direction of Claudio Abbado

Claudio Abbado

Claudio Abbado, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI , is an Italian conductor. He has served as music director of the La Scala opera house in Milan, principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, principal guest conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, music director of the Vienna State Opera,...

 and Leonard Bernstein

Leonard Bernstein

Leonard Bernstein August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, author, music lecturer and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the United States of America to receive worldwide acclaim...

. From 1988 to 1994, Zoon was principal flutist of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra

Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra

The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra is a symphony orchestra of the Netherlands, based at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. In 1988, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands conferred the "Royal" title upon the orchestra...

, his arrival coinciding with that of conductor Riccardo Chailly

Riccardo Chailly

Riccardo Chailly, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI is an Italian conductor. He started his career as an opera conductor and gradually extended his repertoire to encompass symphonic music.-Biography:...

. With this orchestra he performed flute concertos by Mozart, André Jolivet

André Jolivet

André Jolivet was a French composer. Known for his devotion to French culture and musical thought, Jolivet's music draws on his interest in acoustics and atonality as well as both ancient and modern influences in music, particularly on instruments used in ancient times...

, Frank Martin

Frank Martin (composer)

Frank Martin was a Swiss composer, who lived a large part of his life in the Netherlands.-Childhood and youth:...

, and Sofia Gubaidulina

Sofia Gubaidulina

Sofia Asgatovna Gubaidulina, is a Russian composer of half Russian, half Tatar ethnicity.Gubaidulina's music is marked by the use of unusual instrumental combinations...

. Until 1997, he also was principal flutist of and frequent soloist with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe

Chamber Orchestra of Europe

The Chamber Orchestra of Europe , established in 1981, is administratively based in London. The orchestra comprises about 60 members coming from across Europe. The players pursue parallel careers as international soloists, members of eminent chamber groups, and as tutors and professors of music...

, conducted by Claudio Abbado, Bernard Haitink

Bernard Haitink

Bernard Johan Herman Haitink, CH, KBE is a Dutch conductor and violinist.- Early life :Haitink was born in Amsterdam, the son of Willem Haitink and Anna Haitink. He studied music at the conservatoire in Amsterdam...

, and Nicolaus Harnoncourt. He played as principal flute with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra

Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra

The Berlin Philharmonic, German: , formerly Berliner Philharmonisches Orchester , is an orchestra based in Berlin, Germany. In 2006, a group of ten European media outlets voted the Berlin Philharmonic number three on a list of "top ten European Orchestras", after the Vienna Philharmonic and the...

 under the baton of Claudio Abbado. From 1997 to 2001, he was principal flutist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra

Boston Symphony Orchestra

The Boston Symphony Orchestra is an orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts. It is one of the five American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five". Founded in 1881, the BSO plays most of its concerts at Boston's Symphony Hall and in the summer performs at the Tanglewood Music Center...

 under Seiji Ozawa

Seiji Ozawa

is a Japanese conductor, particularly noted for his interpretations of large-scale late Romantic works. He is most known for his work as music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and principal conductor of the Vienna State Opera.-Early years:...

. In 1998, the Boston Globe elected him as "musician of the year". Zoon is a regular principal flutist of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra

Lucerne Festival Orchestra

The Lucerne Festival Orchestra is an ad hoc seasonal orchestra, based at the annual Lucerne Festival in Switzerland. The Lucerne Festival had featured a resident orchestra as far back as 1938, with Arturo Toscanini conducting the first concert of that ensemble. From 1943 until its disbandment in...

. He has also been principal flutist of the Mozart Orchestra since 2004 conducted by Claudio Abbado. He has played as a soloist with orchestras and at festivals in Europe, Japan and the United States. He has made many recordings for multiple labels such as Deutsche Grammophon

Deutsche Grammophon

Deutsche Grammophon is a German classical record label which was the foundation of the future corporation to be known as PolyGram. It is now part of Universal Music Group since its acquisition and absorption of PolyGram in 1999, and it is also UMG's oldest active label...

, Philips

Philips

Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. , more commonly known as Philips, is a multinational Dutch electronics company....

, Decca

Decca Records

Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....

 etc.

Teaching

Zoon has been professor of flute at the Rotterdam Conservatory (1988–1992), Indiana University (1994–1997), and the New England Conservatory and Boston University

Boston University

Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...

 (1997–2001). Since 2002, he has taught at the Conservatoire Supérieur de Musique de Genève and since 2008 at Madrid

Madrid

Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...

's Queen Sofía College of Music and Instituto Internacional de Música de Cámara.

Instrument maker

Zoon plays an old wooden French flute using headjoints he manufactures himself. He designed and created a traverso with a Boehm System

Boehm System

The Boehm system is a system of keywork for the flute, created by inventor and flautist Theobald Boehm between 1831 and 1847.Prior to the development of the Boehm system, flutes were most commonly made of wood, with an inverse conical bore, eight keys, and tone holes that were small in size, and...

, with which he recorded Bach

Bạch

Bạch is a Vietnamese surname. The name is transliterated as Bai in Chinese and Baek, in Korean.Bach is the anglicized variation of the surname Bạch.-Notable people with the surname Bạch:* Bạch Liêu...

's Partita in A minor for solo flute

Partita in A minor for solo flute

Partita in A minor for solo flute by Johann Sebastian Bach is a partita in 4 movements, probably composed around 1718. The title, however, is the work of 20th-century editors. The title in the only surviving 18th-century manuscript is "Solo p[our une] flûte traversière par J. S. Bach"...

. He published on a better key design for the C-sharp. With the Alkmaar based flute builder Alfred Verhoef he constructed a "push flute", the flautus tremendus, with which he performed the Dutch premiere of Gubaidulina's flute concerto. With the William S. Haynes Flute Company of Boston he developed a new wooden flute (named "the Zoon model").

Awards

• 2nd prize at the Willem Pijper
  Willem Pijper
  Willem Pijper ; Zeist, 8 September 1894 - Utrecht, 18 March 1947) was a Dutch composer, music critic and music teacher.-Life:Pijper was born at Zeist, near Utrecht, on 8 September 1894 of strict Calvinist working-class parents. His father, who sometimes played psalm accompaniments on the harmonium,...
  
   Concours in 1981
• The jury prize at the Jean-Pierre Rampal
  Jean-Pierre Rampal
  Jean-Pierre Louis Rampal was a French flautist. He has been personally "credited with returning to the flute the popularity as a solo classical instrument it had not held since the 18th century."-Early years:...
  
   flute competition in 1987 in Paris
• Boston Globe elected him as "musician of the year" in 1998
• Edison Award for the recording of modern classical music for flute and piano with his longtime (since 1978) accompanist Bernd Brackman in 1999 .