Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania September 21, 1910, Oscar G. Zimmerman studied at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with Anton Torello, principal bassist of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Zimmerman was a member of the first graduating class of the Curtis Institute of Music, where he earned a Bachelor of Music degree.
Hired by the Philadelphia Orchestra as a 19-year-old student, he played with the orchestra for six years until joining the Saint Louis Symphony as principal bass player in 1936. He played with the National Broadcasting Company Symphony Orchestra under Arturo Toscanini from 1938-1945 before moving to Rochester. Zimmerman was double bassist with the Rochester Philharmonic for 36 years where he was principal, and was professor emeritus at Eastman School of Music. He also spent 44 successive summers teaching at the Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan.
His former students have filled positions (many of them as principal players) in the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the National Symphony, the North Carolina Symphony, the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra and the symphony orchestras of Atlanta, Milwaukee, Oklahoma City, Dallas, and Ottawa.
His favorite instrument was a Gagliano he bought while still at Curtis from Torello. He called it the Black Gagliano because he had two, a yellow and black.
For the last ten years of his life he had two basses, a Francesco Rugieri and a Hugo Rautmann. He heard Waldimar Geise play the Scontrino Concerto, on the Rautmann with Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra while a student a Curtis. He was so impressed with the projection that he bought the bass at Geise" death (1948) and used it for all his solo work.
Zimmerman died April 2, 1987 in Traverse City, Michigan.
