Siegfried Ochs
Siegfried Ochs was born in Frankfort on the Main, Germany, on April 19, 1858. While studying medicine, he attended the Berlin High School for Music. Then deciding upon music as a life’s career, he continued his music study with private teachers and became a protégé of Hans von Buelow. In 1882 he founded the Philharmonic Choir of Berlin, one of Germany’s most celebrated choral groups. He remained its conductor even after it merged with the chorus of the Berlin High School for Music in 1920. Ochs died in Berlin on February 6, 1929.
Ochs wrote several comic operas, song cycles, and some choral music. A semi-classical favorite is the set of orchestral variations on the well-known German folk song, “Kommt ein Vogel.” These variations are each in the style of a famous composer—Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Wagner, Johann Strauss II, and so on; and each variation shows a remarkable skill, and a winning wit, in mimicking the individual creative mannerisms and idiosyncrasies of each composer.