in harmony and counterpoint with Gene Von Hallberg for two years. Von Hallberg served as a cofounder of the American Accordionists Association in 1938. Hallberg later appeared in the Magnante Quartet before an audience of three thousand concertgoers at Carnegie Hall in 1939 A lifelong friendship with the accordionist Louis Del Monte was established as a result of these studies. Del Monte awakened Serry's interest in Latin American music. Advanced studies in harmony and orchestration were completed under the instruction of the composer Robert Strassburg in the 1940s. Career The 1930s: The big band era The period from 1938-1960 has been described as a unique period of prestige for the accordion in the United States when it attained more widespread acceptance by the public as a "serious instrument" on the concert hall stage. With the help of Del Monte, in the 1930s Serry began his professional career by making appearances with the Ralph Gomez Tango Orchestra at The Rainbow Room at the RCA Building in Rockefeller Center, leading to an extended engagement there in 1935. He also played with the Hugo Mariani Tango Orchestra at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, with Alfred Brito, a Cuban orchestra leader in New York (1936), and Misha Borr, conductor of the Waldorf-Astoria Orchestra. He appeared as a soloist for society functions at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel's Waldorf Towers and at its Starlight Roof with the Lester Lanin Orchestra. In addition, he performed regularly at clubs such as El Morocco, the Rainbow Room, El Chico, and the Riviera in New York City. As the decade came to a close, Serry performed with the jazz ensemble Shep Fields and His Rippling Rhythm during a nationwide tour with live radio broadcasts from the Palmer House hotel in Chicago, Illinois, and the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles, California, over the NBC network (1937–1938). These big band remote broadcasts used Zenith's Radiogran technology. In 1937, he also recorded the distinctive Shep Fields' theme song with the Shep Fields Rippling Rhythm Orchestra for Eli Oberstein on RCA Victor's Bluebird label (Victor, BS-017494, 1937). His performances as a member of the orchestra are also documented in the film The Big Broadcast of 1938 ("This Little Ripple Had Rhythm" and "Thanks for the Memory"), which won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1939. While touring with Shep Fields, he also recorded several popular songs of the time for Bluebird Records,