Samuel Lieberson

He received a medical degree from the University of Odessa in 1907 but then left for Berlin to study music at the Master School for Composition under Friedrich Gernsheim until 1909, when he was awarded the prestigious Mendelssohn Scholarship for his Concerto for Violin and Orchestra.

[4] During World War I, he served as a medical officer on the Turkish front with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the Imperial Russian Army.

Lieberson was selected as a judge for the 1941 Sigma Alpha Iota music fraternity String Awards Competition, along with Leo Sowerby and Czerwonky.

[10] For the closing concert of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's 50th season in 1941, Frederick Stock invited 12 local composers, including Lieberson, to contribute a variation of the folk theme "El-A-Noy", derived from "Illinois," appearing in Carl Sandburg's The American Songbag.

It is a "description in sound of a vaudeville show" in four movements, starting with "Backstage", a fugue; "The Musical Clown", a theme with variation; "The Dancing Prima Ballerina", a rondo; and "The Juggler", a scherzo.

The work was originally commissioned in 1932 by Patricia Gordon, co-founder of the Chicago-based cosmetic company Princess Pat, and was awarded first place at the 1934 Hollywood Bowl composers' competition.

[7] In the program notes accompanying the first Chicago performance, Lieberson wrote that during "a musical evening at the Gordon home my hostess described her idea of a composition that would give the high-lights of vaudeville.

"[17] Two of the four movements were broadcast on the radio as part of the General Motors Concerts series under the direction of Ernö Rapée in 1936.