 Tarras, born Dovid Tarraschuk in Ternivka, (a village in Teplytskyi Raion, Vinnytsia Oblast, Ukraine), was the son of a klezmer trombonist and Badkhn.He grew up playing a variety of instruments and surrounded by the music.He was conscripted into the tsar's army in 1915, but his talents as a musician kept him out of the trenches.