He was born in 1894 as
Shloyme Abramovich Sekunda () in
Aleksandria city,
Kherson Governorate,
Russian Empire (now in
Ukraine) to the family of Abram Secunda and Anna Nedobeika. In 1897, the family moved to the
Black Sea port city of
Mykolaiv, where they opened an iron bed factory. In 1919-1920, he earned his first solo composer's credits with S. H. Kon's ''The Rabbi's Daughter
and Free Slaves''. He worked in Philadelphia's
Metropolitan Opera House with director
Boris Thomashevsky; in 1921-22 he was director and composer at
Clara Young's
Liberty Theater. He composed for the musical
Di Yidishe Shikse by
Anshel Schorr (1927) and
A nakht fun libe (A Night of Love) by
Israel Rosenberg. An exhaustive list of his many works can be found in the
Leksikon fun Yidishn Teater. Together with
Aaron Zeitlin, he wrote the famous
Yiddish song "
Dos kelbl (The Calf)" (also known as "
Donna Donna") which was covered by many musicians, including
Donovan and
Joan Baez. Along with
Abraham Ellstein,
Joseph Rumshinsky, and
Alexander Olshanetsky, he was one of the "big four" composers of his era in
New York City's
Second Avenue National Theater (
Yiddish theatre) scene in the
Yiddish Theater District. These composers banded together in 1932 to protect their royalties through the
Society of Jewish Composers, Publishers and Songwriters. Secunda also worked at another theater founded by
Maurice Schwartz (an emigrant from the
Russian Empire),
Yiddishe Art Theater, earning $75/week for conducting an orchestra. In 1938, he gave an interview to the
Courier-Post about the hit song, "
Bei Mir Bistu Shein". ==Personal life==