George Antheil

George Antheil was an American avantgarde composer, pianist, author and inventor whose modernist musical compositions explored the modern sounds musical, industrial, mechanical of the early 20th century.

Antheil was born George Johann Carl Antheil, and grew up in a family of German immigrants in Trenton, New Jersey. His father owned a local shoe store in the city. Antheil was raised bilingually, writing music, prose, and poetry from an early age, and never formally graduated from high school or college. According to Antheils autobiography The Bad Boy of Music , he was so crazy about music, that his mother sent him to the countryside where no pianos were available. Undeterred, George simply arranged for a local music store to deliver a piano. His somewhat unreliable memoir mythologized his origins as a futurist, and emphasized his upbringing near a noisy machine shop and an ominous prison. Georges younger brother was Henry W. Antheil, Jr. He became a diplomatic courier and died on June 14, 1940, when his plane was shot down over the Baltic Sea.

Source: Wikipedia