Here began his first appreciation of Broadway's glamour, its characters and allure, and an early career as pit, nightclub, and restaurant pianist.

In 1926, he toured London in cabaret; in 1929, he first travelled to Los Angeles, so to join the burgeoning group of New York composers and performers assigned to give film a musical voice.

In 1932, unannounced, he turned to serious composition; he began work on what would become his Sonatina for Piano.

He did so on 30 April 1932 and it was well-received, even lauded by Irving Kolodin, and eventually published.

In 1932, in Lewisohn Stadium, he played the Gershwin Concerto in F for an audience of 17000.

He would not give another public concert for five years, although he made many radio broadcasts of popular and light classical standards.

In 1934, at Gershwin's suggestion, he began studies with Joseph Schillinger (1895-1943).

This Russian-born theorist and composer had become a kind of teacher-to-the-stars whose clients also included Tommy Dorsey, Vernon Duke, Benny Goodman, and Glenn Miller.

In 1935, ostensibly to continue his work as film composer, he once again headed for Hollywood.

This time, however, Levant would enter into the most serious and productive period of study and accomplishment in his concert career; he began work with Arnold Schoenberg.

By 1940, Levant had finished two more orchestral works: Caprice for Orchestra, a nine-minute piece conceived for Robert Russell Bennett's radio program, and Overture 1912, also known at various times as A New Overture and Polka for Oscar Homolka.

In the summer of 1945 he appeared as himself in the Warner Brothers film Rhapsody in Blue, a loose-fitting biography of George Gershwin.

The remainder of his career was filled with work in radio, film, television, writing, and increasingly rare concerts and recitals.

On 14 January 1947, at the invitation of President Harry S. Truman, Levant gave a recital at the White House.

On 29 December 1949, he finally made his Carnegie Hall debut, this with Mitropoulos and the New York Philharmonic.

In An American in Paris, Levant plays every instrument in the orchestra during a fantasy Concerto.

After this film, however, his concert appearances would be more often cancelled than honoured, leading to a strange "banning" initiated by President James Caesar Petrillo of the American Federation of Musicians.

Although the two were ultimately reconciled, it was the final step toward cessation of concert activities.

Stage fright, over-medication, neuroses beyond parody, extended hospitalizations - all this, by the early 1950s, conspired to end Levant's concert career; on 2 August 1958 came his final public appearance in concert.