His unpublished works, some of which have been discovered recently, include Poema Synfonic 'Mallorca, Lo Pi Formentor, and The Death of Emperor Gojong.

[2] Ahn Eak-tai was born in the northern part of Korea just before the colonial era, and attended a school staffed by Catholic missionaries.

Ahn continued his study at Vienna under Bernhard Paumgartner, and under Zoltán Kodály at the Eötvös Loránd University in Hungary.

Upon a second visit to Vienna, Ahn received assistance from Richard Strauss to bring Symphonic Fantasy Korea to near completion.

The escalation of World War II brought Ahn to Spain, where he met Lolita Talavera, his future wife.

[4] His family was a branch of the Ahn clan rooted in the region of Sunheung, part of Yeongju, North Gyeongsang province.

His father, Ahn Deok-hun, ran a hotel business[3] and wanted his children to receive advanced Western education.

[9] Ahn Eak-sam was well aware of his younger brother's interest in music, and so bought him a Suzuki violin, a phonograph and records from Japan.

Sometime in September, Ahn involved himself in an effort to raid a jail in order to rescue the 1 March Movement activists caught by the Japanese police.

[9] In the summer of that year, Ahn came back to Korea on a music performance trip to gather funds for the reconstruction of a burned down church.

There he happened to meet Yi Sangjae, the founder of the Dokrip Newspaper,[16] and Jo Mansik, an independence movement leader who advocated the use of Korean-made products so that Koreans' debts might be paid.

After being prohibited by the Japanese police from holding a concert, Ahn concluded that following Dr. Mauri's advice would be necessary in order to avoid the social barriers placed on the Koreans.

[19] Upon arriving in San Francisco, Ahn was jailed during the immigration inspection process, because he refused to hand his cello over to the officials.

During a service led by Pastor Hwang, Ahn heard the Korean national anthem, which, at that time, was sung to the tune of the Scottish song, "Auld Lang Syne".

[22] As Ahn waited in the train station to head toward Cincinnati, Pastor Hwang gave him a black suitcase and a fountain pen with which to write the new national anthem.

[25] In 1930, Ahn was accepted into the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra[9] as the first cellist,[26] and, during the spring break of his second year, he toured the United States playing recitals in major cities.

In 1937, Ahn went to Hungary to study under Zoltán Kodály, applying his teachings specifically to Asian music in composing the Symphonic Fantasy Korea.

On one occasion, however, Ahn was barred from the Rome Philharmonic Orchestra for performing the Symphonic Fantasy Korea, which the Japanese government had deemed politically displeasing.

On invitation from the Tokyo Geijutsu Daigaku, Ahn arrived at the Haneda Airport in January 1960,[41] and conducted a concert at the Yaon Hibiya Auditorium on the night of 4 February.

[42] After the concert, Ahn urged the Korean population in the area, who had been divided politically between the North and South, to further unity and cooperate.

[9][46] On 16 September 1965, Ahn was stricken by a sudden illness and died while staying on the island of Mallorca, where he lived the last 20 years of his life.