Trained originally in his native London under Walford Davies and Stanford, Leopold Stokowski made his debut as a conductor in Paris in 1908 and became principal conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in 1909. He first conducted the Philadelphia Symphony in 1912, continuing his association with the orchestra for many years. He held leading positions with a number of other major orchestras, and had a series of international guest engagements.

Orchestral Transcriptions
Stokowski boasted a particularly wide repertoire as a conductor, including contemporary works in his programmes. His transcriptions include works by Bach, Handel and Purcell, and works that he called ‘symphonic syntheses’ of Wagner operas – tone poems derived from orchestral transcriptions of Wagner’s works.