 After 4 years at the Curtis Institute of Music, he was employed as principal tuba player for the Philadelphia Orchestra.He later worked as a freelancer in New York City, playing for 6 years with the Radio City Music Hall pit orchestra as well as The Symphony of the Air, The Goldman Band, Sound of Music and numerous commercial studios.In the late 1950s, he became interested in tuba design and began importing European tubas made to his own specifications from the Czech company Cerveny and the Belgian companies De Prins and Mahillion.