[1] While playing flute and piccolo in John Philip Sousa's band in San Francisco, he was discovered by American conductor Walter Damrosch, who invited him to join the New York Symphony Orchestra.
[3] In 1928, he received a Guggenheim Fellowship to compose a symphony on the life of Napoleon I, a violin sonata and an opera based on Bret Harte's The Bellringer of Angels.
[1] These awards enabled him to travel to France, where he studied composition with Nadia Boulanger at the American Conservatory at Fontainebleau.
He has also written a one-act opera of California life, 'The Stranger,' a quintet for piano and strings, and number of songs and violin pieces, and a symphonic nocturne, 'Night on an Island of Phantas,' inspired by a visit to Guam while serving with the Army Transport Corps during the war [WWI].
A ballet for piano, flute and trumpet, called 'The Contrary Princess,' incidental music for Jane Cowl's production of 'Romeo and Juliet,' and 'La Rumba de Monteagudo,' a piece for chamber orchestra based on Cuban popular music, are among his most recent efforts.