I want to learn how to play the piano?

He was born Jacob Gershovitz in Brooklyn, New York to Russian Jewish immigrant parents, the second of four children. In 1910, the Gershowitzes had acquired a piano for Ira's music lessons, but younger brother George took over, since he was learning silently at his aunt's house. He tried out various piano teachers for two years, then was introduced to Charles Hambitzer by Jack Miller, the pianist in the Beethoven Symphony Orchestra. Hambitzer acted as George's mentor until Hambitzer's death in 1918. Hambitzer taught George conventional piano technique, introduced him to music of the European classical tradition, and encouraged him to attend orchestral concerts. (At home following such concerts, young George would attempt to reproduce at the piano the music he had heard). He later studied with classical composer Rubin Goldmark and avant-garde composer-theorist Henry Cowell.