George Ockner

George Ockner (October 19, 1916 – May 12, 1970)"George Ockner Dies, Was Concert Violinist", Mount Vernon, NY: Mount Vernon Daily Argus, May 15, 1970, p. 2Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, May 14, 1970, p. 42 was an American violinist, chamber music artist, recording artist, composer, and arranger.
== Early musical life and career ==
George Ockner was born on October 19, 1916, in New Kensington, Pennsylvania to Harry Ockner and Selima Ockner, immigrants from Russia.1920 United States Federal Census. Pennsylvania, Westmoreland, New Kensington District 0175 George began performing on the violin at an early age. When he was eight years old, his family moved to Philadelphia, where he studied at the Curtis Institute of Music as a scholarship pupil of Sascha Jacobinoff. He received a conservatory degree at Curtis, while attending and graduating with honors from Overbrook High School (Philadelphia), and received a fellowship to the Juilliard School of Music to study with Louis Persinger. Ockner was chosen at age 19 to be concertmaster of the Ballet Russe de Monte-Carlo, making four transcontinental tours of the United States and Canada with them. He won two competitions to perform as youth soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra under Eugene Ormandy: first in 1937, when he was a student at Juilliard and again in November and March 1943.Philadelphia Orchestra Programs, 1943, p. 25 In 1941, he joined the Perolé Quartet as second violinist The Perolé Quartet. 1941. 1 v. (concert program), giving weekly concerts with them over the Mutual Broadcasting System, until he joined the United States Army in World War II. He was a member of the NBC Symphony Orchestra.
== Military service in Glenn Miller's Army Air Force Band and "Strings With Wings" leader ==
While in Basic Training at Atlantic City Training Center BTC #7, Atlantic City, NJ, Pfc Ockner was recruited for the string section of Major Glenn Miller’s Army Air Forces Orchestra, along with many of the finest performing musicians in the United States. Ockner was the concertmaster of the string section, wrote arrangements for Miller, and led the "Strings With Wings" weekly radio broadcasts. The orchestra played for the Allied troops in England and France, including a performance at the Paris Opera House with Andre Kostelanetz and singer Lily Pons|Lili Pons, as well as performances for heads of state. Ockner's widow received the Air Force Medal of Honor posthumously for him on August 16th, 1986 at the first reunion of the Glenn Miller Army Air Force Band.
== Later career ==
At the end of his military service in 1945, Ockner returned to New York City, where he continued to perform as an orchestral violinist, soloist, and arranger. He also resumed his violin studies with Professor Demetrius Constantine Dounis|D. C. Dounis. Ockner worked as a free-lance studio and Broadway musician, and he was a member of the Perole Quartet (along with Joseph Coleman, Lillian Fuchs, and Ernst Silberstein), the Manhattan Trio (Ockner, violin; George Neikrug, cello; Harold Bogin, piano), the Bach Aria Group, and the NBC Symphony Orchestra. He also performed with Leopold Stokowski,Leopold Stokowski and "His Symphony Orchestra" as well as other orchestras and conductors. Ockner was a featured soloist in the Naumburg Memorial Concert conducted by Robert Shaw in Central Park, NY, on May 30, 1946.
From 1946 on Ockner worked frequently in the major recording studios of New York City, recording violin solos for Andre Kostelanetz, Percy Faith, Morton Gould, Alfredo Antonini, and other conductors and composers on commercial recordings, and on sound tracks for films, television shows, and television commercials. The liner notes for Bouquet - The Percy Faith Strings say: "The forty-eight string players, led by George Ockner, Percy's concertmaster, are some of the finest performers in music, men whose skill has made them the highest paid, most respected instrumentalists in America." Ockner's solos can be heard on films by Walt Disney Pictures, MGM, Warner Brothers, and Universal Studios. He can be heard as violin soloist and/or concertmaster on numerous recordings of popular, jazz, and classical music. Ockner was also often the concertmaster (leader) of the string section in these recording sessions. He continued to work until his death in 1970 as an orchestral and recording studio musician in New York, giving occasional solo recitals. 
Ockner was well respected by his colleagues and was " ... a violinist who has probably been heard by more people than any other in history, even though few people outside of the industry know his name ... [he] brings to his work a concert-caliber technique, an exquisite tone, and the authority that comes with thirty years of experience and thorough academic training ... " Ockner played a rare violin made by Vincenzo Rugeri|Vincenzo Ruggieri in Cremona, Italy in 1714.
== Personal life ==
Ockner was married to Cecile (Wolsky) Ockner. They lived in Mount Vernon, NY. They had two daughters and a son. Ockner died on May 12th, 1970 at the age of 53 in Manhattan.New York State, U.S., Death Index, 1957-1970
== Bibliography ==
* Polic, Edward F. (1989). The Glenn Miller Army Air Force Band: Sustineo Alas / I sustain the Wings, volumes one and two. Studies in jazz ; no. 8. Scarecrow Press and Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers University, New Jersey & London. , 
*Rublowsky, John (c1967). Popular Music. Basic Books, Inc. New York, London. 
*Simon, George Thomas (c1974). Glenn Miller And His Orchestra. Thomas Y. Crowell, New York. 
*Spragg, Dennis M. (2017). Glenn Miller Declassified. Potomac Books, Lincoln, NE. 
*Way, Chris (1996). Glenn Miller in Britain Then and Now. After the Battle, London. 
*North, James (2011). Andre Kostelanetz on Records and on the Air: A Discography And Radio Log. The Scarecrow Press, Lanham.
*Malvin, Arthur (1986). Reunion and Remembrance, August 16th, 1986. Beverly Hills, CA
*Butcher, Geoffrey (1986). Next To A Letter From Home: Major Glenn Miller's Wartime Band. Mainstream Publishing, Edinburgh. https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Bedford_Triangle/mLfWCgAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22George+Ockner%22&pg=PP1&printsec=frontcover
*Grudens, Richard (2004). Chattanooga Choo-Choo: The Life and Times of the World-Famous Glenn Miller. Celebrity Profiles Publishing. ISBN 9781575792774
*Bowman, Martin W. (2016). The Bedford Triangle: US Undercover Operations from England in the Second World War. The History Press.
Category:1916 births
Category:1970 deaths
Category:United States Army soldiers
Category:20th-Century American male musicians