Composer, born in Geneva, Switzerland. He studied around Europe before his opera Macbeth appeared, to critical grousing over its modernism, in Paris (1910). After teaching in Geneva he emigrated to the USA in 1917, where he held several teaching posts (his remarkable roster of students included Antheil and Sessions) and gained an international reputation as a composer. He spent most of the 1930s in Switzerland. His works, in a rich late-Romantic vein with touches of modernism and often reflecting his Jewish heritage, include five string quartets and Schelomo for cello and orchestra (1915).