With the encouragement of his piano teachers and Ernst Toch, he entered the University of California, Los Angeles to study with Arnold Schoenberg.

[12] Kirchner began graduate studies at the University of California, Berkeley and was awarded the George Ladd Prix de Paris in 1942.

As World War II put Europe in turmoil, he went to New York and studied with Roger Sessions.

According to Alexander Ringer, he "remained consistently individual, unimpressed by changing fashion where 'idea, the precious ore of art, is lost in the jungle of graphs, prepared tapes, feedbacks and cold stylistic minutiae'.

[15] In 2009 he died of congestive heart failure at his home on Central Park West in New York City.