 After being invalided out of the French Army during World War I, he moved to the United States in December 1915.In 1918, Varèse made his debut in America conducting the "Grande messe des morts" by Berlioz.He spent the first few years in the United States, where he was a Romany Marie's café regular in Greenwich Village, meeting important contributors to American music, promoting his vision of new electronic art music instruments, conducting orchestras, and founding the short-lived New Symphony Orchestra.