Oscar Ravina (April 27, 1930 – February 25, 2010), born in Warsaw, Poland, was a violinist, violin teacher and concertmaster based in New York, who has had a prolific career as a performer as well as being a current professor emeritus at Montclair State University, where a talent grant in his name is regularly given to outstanding full-time freshmen studying string instruments.
Mr. Ravina began his musical career in Poland, and continued his studies at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory in Leningrad; the Anton Bruckner Private University for Music, Drama, and Dance in Linz, Austria; the Mozarteum in Salzburg; and the Vienna State Academy in Vienna.
It was Isaac Stern who urged him to move to the United States, where he continued his studies with Nicoline Zedeler Mix, Professor L. Persinger, and at the Manhattan School of Music.
[1] As founder of the Ravina String Quartet, he concertized and recorded in both the United States and Canada and developed special programs for young audiences.
For more than eleven seasons, Mr. Ravina was music director and conductor of the Montclair Chamber Ensemble.