His family moved to Budapest in 1918, where he finished his high school studies.

His orchestral compositions of the thirties were performed in concerts and in the Hungarian Radio.

During the World War II, he lived in Chile, working as a conductor and a musicologist.

He was a direct assistant of Erich Kleiber, In 1948 he returned to Hungary, where he has continued his composer activity in 1951, commencing an active career as a composer, writing film scores as well as pieces using tape.

In addition to composing, he explored, orchestrated, published values of European music history, and wrote several musicological books.