Born in 1919 on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City and raised in Spring Valley in upstate New York.
His introduction to the Clarinet came at the age of ten when his father, an artist and flutist from Vienna, became his first teacher.
As a teenager he studied with Simeon Bellison, principal clarinetist of the New York Philharmonic. By the age of 19, he had enlisted in the Army, joining the West Point Band, and shortly thereafter began an intensive six-year period of study with Ralph Mclane.
After being discharged from the Army he began a career spanning more than 50 years playing in the orchestras of Broadway musicals.
Principal clarinetist of the American Ballet Theare, Ballet de Paris, Ukranian Folk Ballet and played in commercials, radio and television.
In 1952, he published his first volume of Modern Daily Studies for Clarinet, followed by books 2 & 3. In 1956, he completed the Handbook For Making and Adjusting Single Reeds, the first authoritative book on clarinet reedmaking. And in 1960 he published Repertory of the Clarinet by Ricordi (Italy).
