シュテルン音楽院
Born in Kiev to Romanian Jewish parents, from 1910 to 1913 he studied music at the Stern Conservatory in Berlin. In 1915 he joined the Popescu Gypsy Band ("Zigeuner-Kapelle Popescu"). In 1923 he became bandleader, and the following year embarked on a German tour that ended in April 1925 with an engagement at the Hotel Excelsior in Berlin.