Musicatlas
Music
Life
Born in Moscow from a German father and Russian mother. There he studied composition with Scriabin.
1918 he went to Berlin, Germany, where he attended Busoni’s masterclasses ("Meisterklasse für musikalische Komposition") from 1920 to 1924, at the Prussian Academy for Arts, together with Kurt Weill, Luc Balmer, Robert Blum and Walther Geiser, amongst others. At the same time he actively participated in the "Novembergruppe", with George Antheil, Hans Eisler, Philip Jarnach, Stefan Wolpe and Kurt Weill. Beginning 1925 he acted as teacher in composition, and as critic for music, and performed radiophonic interpretation classes.
1933 he left Germany, branded "entartete Künstler" by the Nazis, and went to Strassburg, Basel and Brussels, then from 1936 to 1939 in Zürich and Cologne. He became citizen of Switzerland in 1954, in Ascona, and gave private lessons to people like Eric Bergma, Maurcie Karkoff, Einoyuhani Rautavaara, Rolf Liebermann.
(Contribution by <vermeulenp
hotmail.com>.)