Leib Glantz Was born on June 1, 1898 in Kiev, Ukraine, then part of the Russian Empire. His father and both grandfathers were important cantors with Chassidic backgrounds. Leibele, as he was fondly nicknamed, was eight years old when he first appeared as a cantor in Kiev. Word spread swiftly about the child prodigy, and he was engaged to appear in concerts all over Europe. In his teens he organized and conducted a large choir in his father’s Talner Chassidic synagogue.

Glantz studied piano with the Ukrainian pianist and composer, Nikolai Tutkovski, and later graduate