Career
He was 15 years old when he began attending the Odessa Conservatory, and at 21 became the concertmaster of the Odessa Opera Orchestra. He left Russia in 1924 because of anti-Semitism after the Russian Revolution. In 1927 he adopted the first name "Edgar" (which was less Hebraic) and formed the Berlin String Quartet with the official approval of the city"s mayor.
The quartet was reformulated in 1933 by the Nazi government.
There he played for the WQXR Radio Orchestra. He accepted a second invitation in 1944 and performed with the group until 1949.
He then moved to Philadelphia where he taught violin at the Settlement Music School until 1985 and served on the faculty at Temple University from 1951 to 1972. He died on May 16, 1996, of cancer at age 95.
