In Memory of Violinist Oscar Ravina

Oscar Ravina, New York Philharmonic violinist, professor of music at Montclair State College, beloved teacher, husband, father, and grandfather, died at home on February 25th after a long illness, comforted by hospice care.  Born in Warsaw in 1930, Ravina studied at the Leningrad Conservatory, and continued his studies after World War II at the Bruckner Conservatory and the Academy of Music in Vienna.  Encouraged to emigrate to the US by Isaac Stern, he arrived in New York in 1950 and worked in the Radio City Music Hall Symphony before joining the New York Philharmonic in 1963.   As a Philharmonic musician he worked with the greatest conductors of his generation and performed on five continents.  Active in chamber music he co-founded and led the Philharmonia Virtuosi of New York and the Ravina String Quartet and performed with the New York Philharmonic Chamber Ensembles.  A devoted, passionate, and beloved teacher, he was named professor emeritus after his retirement from Montclair State College, where he taught for over twenty-five years.  He is survived by his wife, Ruth Ravina, two sons (Mark Ravina, Professor of History at Emory University in Atlanta, and Bernard Ravina, Associate Professor of Neurology at the University of Rochester and the Director of Movement and Inherited Neurological Disorders Unit at the University of Rochester Medical Center), and seven grandchildren.

In lieu of flowers the family asks that donations be made to:
MSU Foundation – Oscar Ravina Talent Grant in Music, c/o Keith Wiggs
Montclair State University, 1 Normal Avenue, Montclair, NJ 07043
Tel: 973-655-3443