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.