[4] He graduated in 1928 but when his family failed to support his musical ambitions, left home and moved to Paris where he adopted his new, French-sounding name.
[4] By playing in nightclubs and cafes and writing popular songs, he funded himself for two years, from 1933, at the Ecole Normale, where his teachers included Paul Dukas and Nadia Boulanger, and settled in England in 1936.
[3][6] In his obituary of Chagrin, fellow composer Benjamin Frankel said that through the Society Chagrin "gave many composers (not only the young ones) their first opportunity of a hearing: he had travelled abroad as our representative, had battled with publishers and spoken passionately on the question of performing rights.
[1] Chagrin married his second wife Eileen during the Second World War and they lived in London, at 48 Fellows Road, Hampstead.
In 1959 he composed the theme and incidental music for the Sapphire Films TV series The Four Just Men for ITV.
In 1963, he won the Harriet Cohen International Music Award as "film composer of the year".