In 1936, he moved to Athens to study composition with George Sklavos and Dimitri Mitropulos, focusing on fugues and counterpoints.
[2] In 1939, he moved to Rome and studied at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia where he was one of the students of renown composer, Alfredo Casella.
Between 1961 and 1970, he continued to give concerts throughout Europe and in parallel composed some big works one of which, Hiroshima, was commissioned by the state of Japan.
In 1976 he was awarded a bursary by the Swiss Confederation to write a symphonic study of the sculptural compositions of the late Alberto Giacometti.
13 years later, the Foundation Gaetano Giuffrè was created by the Cantonal and University Library of Lausanne where his works can be found in manuscript (more than 150 titles).