Andersson, a highly precocious child, nevertheless became skilled as a composer, inventor, and painter through a combination of home schooling and auto-didacticism.

Although he was affected by the consequences of the Wall Street Crash of 1929, financial decisions he had made allowed him to bear the period without excessive detriment.

After a brief residence in Florida, where he became a professional golfer, he settled in Hollywood, California, where he gained attention for the quality of his amateur photography of local film stars.

James Sample, who said Stravinsky's later statements were borne from envy for his student's facility, considered Andersson a superior composer to Charles Ives.

Andersson was born Ernest DeNeen Anderson in Burr Oak, Iowa, on February 10, 1878, at his family's home, known locally as "The Red Barn".

He was the third of five children born to Lavina (née Nichols) and Andrew Edward Anderson (baptized Anders Edvard Andersson), an inventor of farm equipment who had immigrated from Ödeshög, Sweden.

On September 3, he wrote to his father:[3] If I am ever able to compose (hoping the time will soon come), I would like to have the grandness of Wagner, the deepness of Beethoven, the smoothness of Chopin, the clearness of Haydn, the religiousness of Handel, to sing as beautiful a song in notes as Mendelsshon [sic] did, and to have a soul [to] reign over all.

[3]The letter ends with a quote from a remark that Henry Wadsworth Longfellow had made to his father: "I am almost confident in believing that if I can rise in the world, it must be by the exercise of my talent".

[7] During this period, Andersson was also successful as an amateur athlete, race car driver, pilot, photographer, and radio operator.

At his apartment in the Hotel des Artistes he installed a Choralcelo, an early electric organ with two keyboards that occupied a space of two stories,[9] and had cost him US$50,000 (equivalent to $888,932 in 2023).

He later also photographed Gary Cooper, Bing Crosby, W. C. Fields, Laurel and Hardy, Jeanette MacDonald, Adolphe Menjou, Will Rogers, and Rudy Vallee.

[10] While Andersson was on a trip to San Francisco in April 1936, his piano improvisations caught the attention of Pierre Monteux, who was Sample's conducting teacher at the time.

[12] In mid-1940, Andersson discontinued lessons with Donner, choosing instead to study with Daniele Amfitheatrof,[13] after having been impressed with a performance of his American Panorama.

The latter concluded with a staging of the suite from The Firebird choreographed by Adolph Bolm, a common friend[10] that Andersson had met at the Hotel des Artistes.

Hoping to become Stravinsky's student, Andersson enlisted Sol Hurok to propose the idea to the composer and negotiate a contract for private lessons at US$25 (equivalent to $517.87 in 2023) apiece.

[15] H. Colin Slim said that Andersson met Stravinsky in Hollywood on February 19, 1941,[16] after the former had returned with his partner from a trip to Palm Springs.

"[14] Because of disruptions to his royalties caused by World War II and a lack of demand for his music in the United States, Stravinsky's financial situation was strained.

The photographs documented Stravinsky making corrections in the score of the second movement of Andersson's Futurama Symphony—one of the rare instances he permitted anyone to watch him at work.

When a feud erupted between José Iturbi and Benny Goodman in June 1941 over a scheduled performance by the latter of Stravinsky's Tango, Andersson mediated a resolution on the composer's behalf.

The former headed to Salt Lake City in March to hear excerpts from The Sun-Worshipper and Dreams of Solfomby Francinsadit played by the Utah State Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sample.

[26] In the days preceding the concert, the Salt Lake Telegram referred to Andersson as "America's foremost living composer of music".

[28] The Deseret News reported that Andersson's music was greeted with a "storm of applause" and that the composer was called to the stage to take a bow.

[4] Investigations in the early 21st century turned up an anonymous collector in Pennsylvania who possessed some of Andersson's personal documents, including the manuscript of his Futurama Symphony with his teacher's revisions.

In a reply wherein he reaffirmed his dislike of teaching, he mentioned his experience with Andersson:[35] And I said [in response to his desire for composition lessons], a long time you are started [sic] to compose?

[35]Stravinsky's claims of having largely authored the Futurama Symphony are refuted by the extant manuscript score and Andersson's notebook, both of which confirm that he only assisted in its revision.

[35] Although in 1966 Stravinsky gave a very unfavorable opinion of Andersson's worth as a composer, in 1942 he had urged John Barbirolli, Serge Koussevitzky, Dimitri Mitropoulos, and Frederick Stock to conduct the Futurama Symphony.

[37] Sample recalled another occasion when Stravinsky expressed his approval of a "marvelous theme, a motive, a wonderful melody" that Andersson had composed.

Richard D. Saunders, music critic for the Los Angeles Evening Citizen News, reported that the "Nocturne" movement from the Futurama Symphony was well-received.

[40] Bruno David Ussher, music critic for the Los Angeles Daily News, was perhaps the most enthusiastic of all:[38] Conductor Sample introduced a "Nocturne" [unrevised] by Ernest Anderson [sic] of Los Angeles, an astonishing creation in which at last a fusion of such near visionaries as Debussy and Scriabin was accomplished with a daring seldom observed by this writer ... His "Nocturne" further speaks versatility as it bespeaks a sense of reaching out.

[41] Aside from a number of juvenilia, Andersson's known musical compositions are:[42] The manuscript of the revised version of the Futurama Symphony is held in the archives of the UCLA Library.