As a child and teenager Anton Hartman was a loyal member of the Voortrekkers movement which was to become a feature in Afrikaans cultural society.

Their structured activities suited his personality type, one that was also moulded by financial hardship and a fervent will to advance in life.

Aged 21, Hartman started his career at the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) in December 1939 and his first position was that of programme compiler of classical music for the Afrikaans service.

[2] The SABC environment provided many opportunities to acquaint himself with its symphony orchestra: rehearsals, recordings and concerts, many of which were broadcast live and which were the order of the day.

Karl Böhm, Otto Klemperer, Erich Kleiber, Rafael Kubelik, Rudolf Moralt, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Hans Knappertsbusch and Herbert von Karajan were on his list of admired maestri, whereas he found Leopold Stokowski's theatrical mannerisms outrageous.

Upon his return to South Africa late in 1951 Hartman was appointed assistant conductor at the SABC, alongside Jeremy Schulman and Edgar Cree.

[2] His first live broadcast with the SABC Orchestra was on 15 November 1951, Beethoven's Third Symphony (the Eroica) being presented as the main work on the programme.

[5] Hartman added his voice to the plea for a bigger symphony orchestra which could perform and broadcast a wider range of music.

Over the following decades Hartman and his committee made significant strides in producing popular Afrikaans song books, presenting courses for school music, arranging competitions for choirs and awarding bursaries for deserving musicians.

[2] He was a long time friend and associate of Hans Adler (Chairman of the Johannesburg Musical Society, and well known for his keyboard instrument collection and extensive library, later willed to Witwatersrand University, where Hartman had just earlier become head of music) and their co-operation led to many years of concerts and SABC recordings by the finest overseas musicians.

[9] Classical musicians who accepted invitations by the SABC to perform or conduct in South Africa in the sixties and seventies included Radu Aldulescu, Henk Badings, Michel Block, Erling Blondell-Bengtsson, Jorge Bolet, Alfred Brendel, Frederick Brenn, Pierre Boulez, Alfredo Campoli, Edgar Cosma, Robert Craft, Marina de Gabaráin, Monique de la Bruchollerie, Antal Dorati, Phillipe Entremont, Christian Ferras, Arthur Fiedler, Pierre Fournier, Josef Friedland, Erick Friedman, Pierino Gamba, Leonce Gras, Monique Haas, Piet Halsema, Jascha Horenstein, Mindru Katz, Gerald Krug, Louis Lane, Franco Mannino, Dennis Matthews, Ivan Melman, Hans Mommer, Andre Navarra, Rafael Orozco, Franco Patone, Gyorgy Pauk, Edith Peinemann, John Pritchard, Ruggiero Ricci, Witold Rowicki, Malcolm Sargent, Bela Siki, Constantin Silvestri, Abbey Simon, Ruth Slenczynska, Maria Stader, Janos Starker, Daniel Sternefeld, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Igor Stravinsky, Henryk Szering, Bryden Thomas, Sergio Varella-Cid, Tibor Varga, Tamas Vasàry, Heinz Wallberg, Ernst Wallfisch, Daniel Wayenberg, Kurt Wöss, Narciso Yepes [10] (Concert programmes).

[11] Stefans Grové, Arnold van Wyk, Hubert du Plessis, Roelof Temmingh and Peter Klatzow featured in this group.

The inception in 1970 of the SABC Music Prize for young local performers who wished to pursue a solo career was another brain-child of Hartman's.

The SABC Orchestra visited local cities, rural towns and neighbouring countries, Mozambique and South West Africa (today Namibia) to introduce audiences to the genre.

[12] During the 70th anniversary celebrations of the city of Johannesburg in 1956 the London Symphony Orchestra visited the 'City of Gold' and Hartman conducted one of the performances.

[14] Anton Nel was the top piano student there at the time and later pursued an international career as pedagogue and concert pianist.

Hartman conducted one of the gala concerts with soloists Mimi Coertse, Evelyn Dalberg, Bernard de Clerk and Deon Van der Walt.

van Wyk Louw,[21] Nobel Peace Prize winner FW de Klerk, and Piet Meyer.

As a mother tongue Afrikaans speaker and deeply aware of his fellow Afrikaners’ perceived or real educational, cultural and economic inferiority he accepted this invitation.

When he was a young employee at the SABC carefully selecting records to play on the air, he was already harnessing the uplifting that beautiful music could bring to very ordinary people in the remote rural areas of the expansive sub continent.

By the time he was head of music or the principal conductor of the SABC he could build the biggest philharmonic orchestra south of the Sahara to a formidable entity.