In 1931 his opera The Venetian Glass Nephew was staged at the Vanderbilt Theatre on Broadway.
He wrote as a music critic for a variety of publications in Europe and the United States, including The Outlook, the Daily Mirror, the Brooklyn Eagle, Cue, and the New York Herald Tribune.
His mother died while giving birth to him, and he was raised in Washington, North Carolina by his great aunt, Mrs. Mary MacDonald, and her husband, Dr. John MacDonald.
In his youth he studied piano with his next door neighbor, Charlotte Brown, and attended preparatory school in Warrenton, North Carolina.
From 1911 to 1917 he spent time studying with a variety of teachers in England; including Landon Ronald, Herbert Bedford, Liza Lehmann, and Cyril Scott.