[1][2] With the recommendation of Maud Powell and Efrem Zimbalist, he started at the age of 13 to study with Franz Kneisel in New York City at the Institute of Musical Art, now Juilliard.
His solo recital debut at New York's Town Hall in 1928 was under the auspices of the Naumburg Award.
Subsequently, he performed chamber music with Pablo Casals, Mischa Elman, Jascha Heifetz, Fritz Kreisler, Gregor Piatigorsky, Efrem Zimbalist and Alfredo Rossi.
In 1948 he also emerged under the baton of Alfredo Antonini with the CBS Symphony Orchestra in a performance of Antonio Vivaldi's Violin Concertos, Op.
[3] He was an accomplished violinist, playing 15-minute radio recitals when he was asked to play the soundtrack for Ernst Lubitsch's movie The Merry Widow; this performance opened up a long career in performing soundtracks for Hollywood films, including such classics as Casablanca, Gone with the Wind, The Diary of Anne Frank, Wuthering Heights, The Grapes of Wrath, and Spartacus.