He studied with Otto Barblan, Willy Rehberg and Joseph Lauber at the Geneva Conservatory 1902–05,[1] then at the Conservatoire de Paris with Louis Diémer (piano) and Gabriel Fauré and Charles-Marie Widor (composition).
[4][5] In 1910 Frey entered the composition section of the Anton Rubinstein Competition in St Petersburg, and won with his Piano Trio.
[2] Back in Switzerland after the Russian Revolution, he taught at the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste until his death, directing the piano finishing class there from 1922.
He was considered among the leading Swiss pianists, his playing being noted for its extreme delicacy of feeling combined with brilliance of execution.
He was influenced to some degree by Alexander Scriabin, whom he knew, by Sergei Prokofiev[9] and by Ferruccio Busoni.