I was not a particularly talented or motivated youngster, except that I loved to play my trumpet in the school band and my bugle in the Phantom Regiment. In these groups as a very awkward and immature kid, I found acceptance and support.
Mentors in both of these groups guided, inspired, and challenged me to achieve things I couldn’t have imagined. In the Phantom Regiment (along with students from all Rockford & Loves Park schools!), it was the brass instructor and arranger James Wren.
At Rockford West HS, it was a remarkable band director named Ken Molnar. Molnar had an odd charisma; he was quiet, a bit dour (we didn’t see him smile for months, it seemed), and had a sarcastic (though never cruel) wit. He somehow inspired loyalty, excellence, curiosity, and self respect. I still don’t know quite how he did it. Molnar featured me in the newly-formed school jazz ensemble (where high-note techniques I developed in the drum corps really paid dividends), which attracted the attention of my next mentor, the director of bands at Western Illinois University, Bob Morsch (I’d had no plans to go to college).
After WIU, I followed Morsch to Georgia State University in Atlanta as a graduate assistant, where yet another mentor was waiting. John Head was principal Trumpet of the Atlanta Symphony, a gifted teacher, and a powerful music contractor. He helped me establish a freelance career in Atlanta, and prepared me for orchestra auditions, which are few, and extremely competitive. I won my first audition, which was for Principal Trumpet in the New Mexico Symphony, and five years later, secured a position with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. In 2020, I retired from “the Met” and my wife and I moved back to beautiful New Mexico.
I am a product of the Rockford Public Schools, and got my my musical start in the band programs at Roosevelt Jr. and West High schools. Ken Molnar, the band director at West, was a mentor and major influence. The Phantom Regiment, with which I was simultaneously involved (with students from all over Rockford!) was another big influence. Musical exposure with West HS jazz band led to my being recruited by the Western Illinois Univ. band director. From there I went to Atlanta for graduate work, and study with Atlanta Symphony professionals. In Atlanta I began a career as a freelance musician, playing virtually any style of music that called for a trumpet. Seven years later, I won a position with the New Mexico Symphony (Albuquerque), and five after that, an appointment to the Metropolitan Opera orchestra in NYC, from which I recently retired after 28 seasons.
Peter Bond is a RPS 205 Fine Arts Hall of Fame Inductee for 2024.