- He prepared the choruses for legendary conductor Arturo Toscanini in the early 1940s, after which choral conductor Robert Shaw took over the job.
- One of the pre-eminent choral directors in the United States, he is most famous for the choral arrangement and American lyrics for the Ukrainian Christmas song, 'Carol of the Bells'.
- His "Carol of the Bells" employs the melody of a Ukrainian song called "Shchedryk". The original song is actually about springtime, not Christmas or bells.
- He attended the Russian Cathedral Choir School in New York, along with his siblings. He studied at Juilliard and later taught there.
- His family immigrated to the US from what was then the Austro-Hungarian Empire and is today part of northeastern Slovakia.
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