Russian émigré Andre Kostelanetz began making Easy Listening Music before there was a category called Easy Listening. Kostelanetz got his start in performance a child in the Petrograd choir. He would later lead the choir. Fleeing the Russian Revolution, he came to the U.S. in 1922. Taking work at first as an accompanist, he made his radio debut in 1924 as an orchestral conductor. During the 1930's he put together a 65-piece orchestra, the largest in radio at the time, for the program, "Andre Kostelanetz Presents." He conducted many concerts for radio. In the 1930s, he began his own weekly show on CBS, Andre Kostelanetz Presents. Kostelanetz was known for arranging and recording light classical music pieces for mass audiences, as well as orchestral versions of songs and Broadway show tunes. He made numerous recordings over the course of his career, which had sales of over 50 million and became staples of beautiful music radio stations.
