Although he had studied piano, trumpet, French horn, viola, violin, and woodwind instruments from an early age,[1] he turned to the profession of music comparatively late.
He then earned his living for two years playing in jazz bands before going to Paris to study composition at the Ecole Normale de Musique with Nadia Boulanger (1938–39).
Returning to the United States he studied composition privately with Otto Luening, followed by graduate work, first at New York University, and then at the Cleveland Institute with Herbert Elwell, where he earned a Master of Music degree in 1942.
[1] His Third Symphony was premiered on October 28, 1952, by Leopold Stokowski and the CBS Orchestra, who recorded it two days later for RCA Victor.
He died on January 3, 1997, at the Parker Jewish Geriatric Institute in Queens, NY.