Trivia

He appeared as a soloist with the world's leading orchestras, played recitals on famous stages, and made many recordings. He was a Romantic specialist, most closely associated with Schumann, Chopin, and Rachmaninoff.

After the war, he moved to New York, where he studied at the Juilliard School.

In 1941, after Bulgaria allied itself with the Axis powers, he and his mother, who were Jewish, attempted to cross into Turkey using false documents. They were detained for several months at a concentration camp on the border. With the aid of a sympathetic German officer, who loved the Schubert that "Sigi" played on an accordion, they were able to escape. They made their way to Istanbul and eventually to Palestine.