David Rosenthal quotes from David Pinski's memoirs as follows:

"One looks for the beginnings of the artist in his parents to see if there was something he had inherited. My father, a Moscow Commissioner of Military Officers' Uniforms and Decorations, was a lover of good music...Often, on a Sabbath or holiday, he would lead the services, but that happened only in his own dwelling. In our rooms in Moscow stood our own Sefer Torah, and on Sabbath and holidays the Jewish tenants of the vicinity held their own services. Aside from that, my father at the lectern sought not only melody but heart, and the congregation praised his abilities as a prayer-leader." "My mother loved flowers and plants and our apartment in Mohilev on the Dnieper was a veritable greenhouse."