George McNeice

American clarinetist of Scottish and Irish ancestry (born July 16. 1857 in the Woolwich, Kent, England - died June 30, 1920 in Pompton Lakes, Passaic, NJ, U.S.A.) One of the first clarinetists ever recorded thanks to Emile Berliner's Gramophone, McNeice emigrated to the United States in 1880, first settling in San Francisco, CA, where he got married. He moved to New York City in 1895 and became a naturalized U.S. citizen in October 1896, with a reference by Columbia's musical director, Charles A. Prince. In 1910, he lived in Compton, NJ, working as a musical director. In 1915, he had moved to Pompton Lakes, Passaic, NJ, and was working as a florist while both his teenage daughters were employed as musicians. Despite his age, he must have volunteered to serve in the First World War. In April 1919, he returned as a Bandleader with the Headquarters Company of the 114th Infantry Regiment from St. Nazaire, France. Back in the US., he again listed his profession as bandmaster in the January 1920 U.S. Census, a few months before he died. Between 1897 and 1899, McNeice recorded several duets with Sousa's Band clarinetist August P. Stengler for Berliner. Between 1901 and 1908, he performed more than a dozen clarinet solos for Columbia on disc and cylinder; many of these were reissued on Columbia client labels such as Standard Disc Record and the labels distributed by Sears Roebuck & Co, i.e., Harvard Disc Record, Oxford Disc Record, and Silvertone.