Biography
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Born
5 September 1915
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Died
25 March 2009 (aged 93)
Willie Schobben (also Willy Schobben) (Maastricht, 5 september 1915 – Kerkrade, 25 maart 2009) was a Dutch trompetist, composer, dirictor and arranger.
At 6 years of age he played trumpet with the local fanfare Saint Hubert in Maastricht, Netherlands. Education at the musical lyceum in Maastricht followed. In 1927 Willie played with the Maastrichts Stedelijk Orkest (MSO), the precursor of the Limburgs Symfonie Orkest. From 1950 he was the conductor of the AVRO dance orchestra. Just after World War II he established the band Red, Whita and Blue Stars, together with Bep Rowold and Pi Scheffer. This was the precursor of the wellknown bigband The Skymasters, also known as AVRO's Dance Orchestra, where he played first trumpet as early as his first repetition in 1946,
His greatest successes were in 1962, with two of his records reaching number 1 in the Dutch charts, Mexico and an instrumental version of Brandend Zand.
From 1936 Schobben was married to trumpetist Clara de Vries who perished in Auschwitz. He died in 2009 in Kerkrade, Netherlands, 93 years old.
Schobben was awarded the royal order Ridder in de Orde van Oranje-Nassau.
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