Musicians - Leopold Stokowski

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	Musicians - Leopold Stokowski

Antoni Stanisław Bolesławowicz (April 18, 1882 in London, England – September 13, 1977) was the conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the NBC Symphony Orchestra, Hollywood Bowl Orchestra and the Symphony of the Air. He was the founder of the New York City Symphony Orchestra and The American Symphony Orchestra. He arranged the music for and appeared in Disney’s Fantasia. His popularity was such that he was caricatured in several Warner Bros. cartoons (including Long-Haired Hare) as Leopold.

Early life

He was son of Polish cabinetmaker Kopernik Józef Bolesław Stokowski and his Irish wife Annie Marion Moore. There is a certain amount of mystery surrounding his early life. For example, no one could ever determine where his slightly Eastern European, foreign-sounding accent came from as he was born and raised in London (it is surmised that this was an affectation on his part to add mystery and interest) and he also, on occasion, quoted his birth year as 1887 instead of 1882.

Stokowski trained at the Royal College of Music (which he entered in 1896, at the age of thirteen, one of the college's youngest students ever). He sang in the choir of St. Marylebone Church and later became Assistant Organist to Sir Henry Walford Davies at The Temple Church. At the age of 16, he was elected to membership in the Royal College of Organists. In 1900 he formed the choir of St. Mary's Church, Charing Cross Road. There he trained the choirboys and played the organ and in 1902 was appointed organist and choir director of St. James's Church, Piccadilly. He also attended Queen's College, Oxford where he earned a Bachelor of Music degree in 1903.

Professional career

In 1905 Stokowski began work in New York City as the organist and choir director of St. Bartholomew's Church. He became very popular amongst the parishoners (who included JP Morgan and members of the Vanderbilt family) but eventually quit the position to pursue a post as an orchestra conductor. He moved to Paris for additional study before hearing that the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra would be needing a new conductor when it returned from a hiatus. So, in 1908, he began his campaign to obtain the position, writing multiple letters to the orchestra's president, Mrs. C. R. Holmes, and traveling to Cincinnati for a personal interview. Eventually he was granted the post and officially took up his duties in the fall of 1909.

Stokowski was a great success in Cincinnati, introducing the idea of "pop concerts" and conducting the United States premieres of new works by composers such as Edward Elgar. However, in early 1912 he became sufficiently frustrated with the politics of the orchestra's board that he tendered his resignation. There was a dispute over the resignation, but on April 12 it was finally accepted.

Two months later, Stokowski was appointed director of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Stokowski made his Philadelphia debut on October 11, 1912. This position would bring him some of his greatest accomplishments and recognition.

Stokowski rapidly garnered a reputation as a showman. His flair for the theatrical included grand gestures such as throwing the sheet music on the floor to show he did not need to conduct from a score. He also experimented with lighting techniques in the concert hall, at one point conducting in a dark hall with only his head and hands lighted, at other times arranging the lights so they would cast theatrical shadows of his head and hands. His hair, always unruly, he allowed to grow long, and he combed it straight back. This created a "lion's mane" effect that he carefully nurtured (his adopted first name "Leopold", means "lion-like"). Late in the 1929-30 season, he started conducting without a baton; his free-hand manner of conducting became one of his trademarks.

On the musical side, Stokowski nurtured the orchestra and shaped the "Stokowski" sound. He encouraged "free bowing" from the string section, "free breathing" from the brass section, and continually played with the seating arrangements of the sections as well as the acoustics of the hall in order to create better sound.

Stokowski's repertoire was broad and included contemporary works. In 1916, he conducted the United States premiere of Mahler's 8th Symphony. He added works by Rachmaninoff, Sibelius and Igor Stravinsky. In 1933, he started "Youth Concerts" for younger audiences which are still a Philadelphia tradition and fostered youth music programs. He was very much a man of his times, and he understood his times well. He was famous for transcribing many of the major organ works of J. S. Bach for Wagnerian-sized orchestra, his goal being to bring this magnificent music to a wider audience. While much admired in their day, these transcriptions are little played now, and widely considered by many to be bastardizations of the works. However, today the organ works of Bach are widely heard in their original form via recordings and concerts, much more so than during Stokowski's time. Whether his transcriptions encouraged that resurgence of interest in Bach's organ music or not is a subject of much debate.

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