Georges Mager

French classical trumpet player, violinist and teacher. Born 1885 Died 1950. He was the principal trumpet with the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1919 until his death in 1950. Mager was on the faculty of the New England Conservatory, and was the teacher of many great trumpet players including Leon Merian, Robert Nagel, Adolph Herseth, Roger Voisin, Bernard Adelstein, and Irving Sarin. Mager was trained in France by French trumpet player Jean Mellet (who was a student of Jean-Baptiste Arban) at the Paris Conservatoire. He was a renowned trumpeter in Paris before the First World War, playing at the Paris Opera, Concerts Lamoureux, and the Concerts of the Society of the Conservatory. He also had an alternate career as a singer in the duo with his wife Claire, a well-known soprano, and had hoped for an operatic career. After serving in the French army during the war he came to America as flugelhorn soloist with the Garde Republicaine Band and was engaged to play in the Boston Symphony, first as a violist, since there was no vacancy for trumpet, sharing a stand with Arthur Fiedler. He assumed the first trumpet position in 1920.