Further graduate study was pursued at Brandeis and Harvard Universities where he completed the academic requirements for the Ph.D. His teachers in composition included Irving Fine, Arthur Berger, George Perle, Harold Shapero and Claude Almand.
His teaching career included tenures in the public schools of Louisville (1958–59) and Mamaroneck, New York (1964–65), and at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury (1965- ).
Best-known of his works are the symphonic oratorio I Have a Dream (1971), Hehlehlooyuh for a cappella chorus (1976), the trio Variants (1963), the choral suite Four Little Foxes (1965), and Declaration of Independence for orchestra and narrator (1977).
Included among these is an in-depth study of his selected choral music in a doctoral dissertation by Effie Gardner (Michigan State University).
He is widely published in a variety of mediums which include orchestral, vocal, chamber, solo, mixed media and Afro-American gospel music.