[1] [failed verification] He studied the piano and composition at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, with Anton Rubinstein, Anatoly Lyadov, Alexander Glazunov and Nikolai Medtner among others.

On 6 October 1909, he married Mark Twain's daughter Clara Clemens, a singer who appeared with him in recital.

On 18 August 1910, their only child, Nina, was born at Mark Twain's home Stormfield in Redding, Connecticut.

Through the intervention of the nuncio to Bavaria, Archbishop Eugenio Pacelli (later Pope Pius XII), Gabrilowitsch was freed from jail, and then he headed to the United States[5] via Zürich in August 1914.

Before accepting the conductor's position, he demanded a new auditorium be built, and this was the impetus for the building of Orchestra Hall.