View source for Leopold Stokowski

{{Short description|British conductor (1882–1977)}}
{{Use British English|date=June 2025}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2025}}
{{Infobox person
| name          = Leopold Stokowski
| image         = Leopold Stokowski LOC 26447u.jpg
| caption       =
| birth_name    = Leopold Anthony Stokowski
| birth_date    = {{birth date|1882|4|18|df=y}}
| birth_place   = [[Marylebone]], Middlesex, England
| death_date    = {{death date and age|1977|9|13|1882|4|18|df=y}}
| death_place   = [[Nether Wallop]], Hampshire, England
| occupation = {{hlist|Conductor|composer|organist}}
| notable_works = '''Film:'''<br>[[Walt Disney]]'s ''[[Fantasia (1940 film)|Fantasia]]''<br>''[[Carnegie Hall (film)|Carnegie Hall]]''<br>''[[One Hundred Men and a Girl]]''
| known_for     = Music director of the [[Philadelphia Orchestra]];<br>Founder of the [[Hollywood Bowl Symphony Orchestra]] and the [[American Symphony Orchestra]]
| alma_mater    =
| resting_place = [[East Finchley Cemetery]]
| spouse        = {{plainlist|
* {{marriage|[[Olga Samaroff]]|1911|1923|reason=div}}
* {{marriage|Evangeline Johnson|1926|1937|reason=div}}
* {{marriage|[[Gloria Vanderbilt]]|1945|1955|reason=div}}
}}
| children      = 5
}}
'''Leopold Anthony Stokowski''' ({{IPAc-en|UK|s|t|ə|ˈ|k|ɒ|f|s|k|i}} {{respell|stə|KOF|skee}}, {{IPAc-en|US|s|t|ə|ˈ|k|ɔː|f|s|k|i|,_|s|t|ə|ˈ|k|aʊ|s|k|i}} {{respell|stə|KAWF|skee|,_|stə|KOW|skee}};<ref>{{Cite Collins Dictionary|Stokowski|access-date=24 August 2025}}</ref> 18 April 1882 – 13 September 1977) was a British conductor.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|last=Bowen|first=José A.|author-link=José Antonio Bowen|year=2001|encyclopedia=[[Grove Music Online]]|title=Stokowski, Leopold|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|location=Oxford|doi=10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.26825|isbn=978-1-56159-263-0|url-access=subscription|url=https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000026825 }} {{Grove Music subscription}}</ref> One of the leading conductors of the early and mid-20th century, he is best known for his long association with the [[Philadelphia Orchestra]]. He was especially noted for his free-hand conducting style that spurned the traditional [[baton (conducting)|baton]] and for obtaining a characteristic sound from the orchestras he directed.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Leopold-Stokowski|title=Leopold Stokowski {{!}} British conductor|website=Encyclopædia Britannica|language=en|access-date=19 January 2020}}</ref>

Stokowski was music director of the [[Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra]], the [[Philadelphia Orchestra]], the [[NBC Symphony Orchestra]], [[New York Philharmonic Orchestra]], the [[Houston Symphony Orchestra]], the [[NBC Symphony Orchestra|Symphony of the Air]] and many others. He was also the founder of the All-American Youth Orchestra, the New York City Symphony, the [[Hollywood Bowl Symphony Orchestra]] and the [[American Symphony Orchestra]].

Stokowski conducted the music for and appeared in several Hollywood films, most notably Disney's ''[[Fantasia (1940 film)|Fantasia]]'', and was a lifelong champion of contemporary composers, giving many premieres of new music during his 60-year conducting career. Stokowski, who made his official conducting debut in 1909, appeared in public for the last time in 1975 but continued making recordings until June 1977, a few months before his death at the age of 95.

== Early life and education ==
Leopold Anthony Stokowski was the son of an English-born cabinet-maker of Polish heritage, Kopernik Joseph Boleslaw Stokowski, and his Irish-born wife Annie-Marion ({{née|Moore}}). Stokowski's birth certificate<ref>The birth certificate was signed by J.&nbsp;Claxton, the registrar at the General Office, Somerset House, London, in the parish of All Souls, County of [[Middlesex]].</ref> gives his birth on 18 April 1882, at 13 Upper Marylebone Street (now New Cavendish Street), in the Marylebone district of London. Stokowski was named after his Polish-born grandfather Leopold, who died in the Bethlem Hospital, Southwark, London, on 13 January 1879, at the age of 49.<ref>England and Wales General Register Office January–March 1879, St. Saviour, Surrey, 01D/53</ref> Stokowski was the Polonised Lithuanian family name, originally ''Stokauskas'', where ''stoka'' means "lack" or "shortage".

On occasion in later life he altered his middle name to ''Antoni'', in the Polish spelling. Compounding this, there were various rumours and inaccurate entries in otherwise authoritative reference works concerning his name. In Germany there was a rumour that his original name was simply ''Stock'' (German for stick). After he had achieved international fame with the Philadelphia Orchestra, unsubstantiated rumours circulated that he was born ''Leonard'' or ''Lionel Stokes'' or that he had "anglicised" it to "Stokes".<ref>{{Cite news|date=12 January 1927|title=£50,000 in 30 Days for an Orchestra. The Big American Way with Music.|work=[[Evening Standard]]|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/102350886/evening-standard|access-date=22 May 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220522214228/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/102350886/evening-standard/|archive-date=22 May 2022|quote=The Philadelphians' conductor is Leopold Stokowski, who was born in England—his real name is Stokes [sic]—but has Polish blood in him.|via=[[Newspapers.com]]}}</ref> The 5th Edition of ''[[Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians]]'' (1954) rendered his given names as ''Leopold&nbsp;Antoni Stanisław Bołesławowicz''. These claims are readily disproved by reference not only to his birth certificate and those of his father, his younger brother and his sister, but also by the student entry registers of the Royal College of Music, the Royal College of Organists and The Queen's College, Oxford, along with surviving documents from his days at St Marylebone Church, St James's Church and St. Bartholomew's in New York City.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Knight|first1=John|title=Leopold Stokowski Explores Debussy's Orchestral Colors|journal=The Instrumentalist|year=1996|volume=50|issue=9}}</ref> 

There is some mystery surrounding his early life. For example, he spoke with an unusual, non-British accent, though he was born and raised in London.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2005/sep/23/classicalmusicandopera|title=He would fix the audience with his glinting eye...|newspaper=The Guardian|author=Simon Callow|date=23 September 2005|access-date=11 April 2007}}</ref> On occasion, he gave his year of birth as 1887 instead of 1882, as in a letter to the ''Hugo Riemann Musiklexicon'' in 1950, which also incorrectly gave his birthplace as [[Kraków]]. [[Nicolas Slonimsky]], editor of ''[[Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians]]'', received a letter from a Finnish encyclopaedia editor that said: "The Maestro himself told me that he was born in [[Pomerania]], Germany, in 1889." 

The mystery surrounding his origins and accent is clarified in Oliver Daniel's 1,000-page biography ''Stokowski – A Counterpoint of View'' (1982), in which (in Chapter 12) Daniel reveals that Stokowski came under the influence of his first wife [[Olga Samaroff]], an American pianist born Lucy Mary Agnes Hickenlooper. She was from [[Galveston, Texas]], and adopted a more exotic-sounding name to further her career. She "urged him to emphasize only the Polish part of his background" for professional and career reasons once he became a resident of the United States.

He studied at the [[Royal College of Music]], where he first enrolled in 1896 at the age of thirteen, making him one of the youngest students to do so. In his later life in the United States Stokowski conducted six of the nine symphonies composed by his fellow organ student [[Ralph Vaughan Williams]]. Stokowski sang in the choir of the [[St Marylebone Parish Church]], and later became assistant organist to Sir [[Walford Davies]] at [[Temple Church|the Temple Church]]. By the age of 16 Stokowski had been elected to membership of the [[Royal College of Organists]]. In 1900 he formed the choir of [[St Mary's Church, Charing Cross Road]], where he trained the choirboys and played the organ. In 1902 he was appointed organist and choir director of [[St James's Church, Piccadilly]]. He also attended [[The Queen's College, Oxford]], where he received the degree of [[Bachelor of Music]] in 1903.<ref>{{cite book|last=Smith|first=Rollin|title=Stokowski and the Organ|publisher=Pendragon Press|year=2004|page=17}}</ref>

== Career ==

===New York, Paris, and Cincinnati===
In 1905 Stokowski began work in New York City as the organist and choir director of [[St. Bartholomew's Church (New York)|St. Bartholomew's Church]]. He was very popular among the parishioners, who included members of the [[Vanderbilt family]], but in the course of time he resigned this position to pursue a career as an orchestra conductor. Stokowski moved to Paris for additional studies in conducting. There he heard that the [[Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra]] would be needing a new conductor when it returned from a long sabbatical. In 1908 Stokowski began a campaign to win this position, writing letters to Mrs. Christian R. Holmes, the orchestra's president, and travelling to [[Cincinnati]], Ohio, for a personal interview.

Stokowski was selected over other applicants and took up his conducting duties in late 1909. That was also the year of his official conducting debut in Paris with the Colonne Orchestra, on 12 May 1909, when he accompanied his future wife, the pianist [[Olga Samaroff]], in [[Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky|Tchaikovsky]]'s [[Piano Concerto No. 1 (Tchaikovsky)|Piano Concerto No. 1]]. Stokowski's conducting debut in London took place the following week, on 18 May, with the [[New Symphony Orchestra (London)|New Symphony Orchestra]] at the [[Queen's Hall]]. 

His engagement as new permanent conductor in Cincinnati was a great success. He introduced the concept of "pops concerts" and, starting with his first season, he began championing the work of living composers. His concerts included performances of music by [[Richard Strauss]], [[Jean Sibelius|Sibelius]], [[Sergei Rachmaninoff|Rachmaninoff]], [[Claude Debussy|Debussy]], [[Alexander Glazunov|Glazunov]], [[Camille Saint-Saëns|Saint-Saëns]] and many others. He conducted the American premieres of new works by such composers as [[Edward Elgar|Elgar]], whose [[Symphony No. 2 (Elgar)|2nd Symphony]] was first presented there on 24 November 1911. He was to maintain his advocacy of contemporary music to the end of his career. However, in early 1912 Stokowski became frustrated with the policies of the orchestra's board of directors, and submitted his resignation. There was some dispute over whether to accept this or not, but on 12 April 1912 the board decided to do so.{{Citation needed|date=July 2014}}

===Philadelphia Orchestra===
[[File:Leopold Stokowski Historical Marker at 240 S Broad St Philadelphia PA (DSC 4778).jpg|thumb|Leopold Stokowski [[historical marker]] at 240 S. Broad St., Philadelphia]]

Two months later, Stokowski was appointed the director of the [[Philadelphia Orchestra]], and he made his conducting debut in [[Philadelphia]] on 11 October 1912. This position would bring him some of his greatest accomplishments and recognition. It has been suggested that Stokowski resigned abruptly at Cincinnati with the hidden knowledge that the conducting position in Philadelphia was his when he wanted it, or as [[Oscar Levant]] suggested in his book ''A Smattering of Ignorance'', "he had the contract in his back pocket." Before Stokowski moved into his conducting position in Philadelphia, however, he returned to England to conduct two concerts at the [[Queen's Hall]] in London. On 22&nbsp;May 1912, Stokowski conducted the [[London Symphony Orchestra]] in a concert that he was to repeat in its entirety 60 years later at the age of 90, and on 14 June 1912, he conducted an all-[[Richard Wagner|Wagner]] concert that featured the noted soprano [[Lillian Nordica]]. While he was director of the Philadelphia Orchestra, he was largely responsible for convincing [[Mary Louise Curtis Bok]] to set up the [[Curtis Institute of Music]] (13 October 1924) in Philadelphia. He helped with recruiting faculty and hired many of their graduates.{{Citation needed|date=July 2014}}

{{listen|type=music|pos=left|header='''''Toccata and Fugue in D minor'''''|filename=PDP-CH - Philadelphia Orchestra - Leopold Stokowski - Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565 - Part 1 - Johann Sebastian Bach - Electrola-ej231-5-0761.flac|title=Part 1 (4:29)|description=|filename2=PDP-CH - Philadelphia Orchestra - Leopold Stokowski - Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565 - Part 2 - Johann Sebastian Bach - Electrola-ej231-5-0762.flac|title2=Part 2 (4:24)|description2=Piece by [[Johann Sebastian Bach]], both parts performed in 1928 by the [[Philadelphia Orchestra]] under the direction of Leopold Stokowski}}Stokowski rapidly gained a reputation as a musical 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 new lighting arrangements in the concert hall,<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2002/jul/19/artsfeatures.shopping|title=Are concerts killing music?|newspaper=The Guardian|author=David Lasserson|date=19 July 2002|access-date=11 April 2007}}</ref> 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. Late in the 1929–1930 symphony season, Stokowski started conducting without a baton. His free-hand manner of conducting soon became one of his trademarks. On the musical side, Stokowski nurtured the orchestra and shaped the "Stokowski" sound, or what became known as the "Philadelphia Sound".<ref>{{cite news|url=http://articles.philly.com/2007-01-26/news/25221833_1_leopold-stokowski-philadelphia-sound-philadelphia-orchestra|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140810200146/http://articles.philly.com/2007-01-26/news/25221833_1_leopold-stokowski-philadelphia-sound-philadelphia-orchestra|url-status=dead|archive-date=10 August 2014|title=Leopold Stokowski, the father of the Philadelphia Sound|website=The Philadelphia Inquirer|author=David Patrick Stearns|date=26 January 2007|access-date=11 April 2007}}</ref> He encouraged "[[free bowing]]" from the string section, "free breathing" from the brass section, and continually altered the seating arrangements of the orchestra's sections, as well as the acoustics of the hall, in response to his urge to create a better sound. Stokowski is credited as the first conductor to adopt the seating plan that is used by most orchestras today, with first and second violins together on the conductor's left, and the violas and cellos to the right.<ref>Preben Opperby, ''Leopold Stokowski'', Great Performers, Tunbridge Wells, Kent: Midas / New York: Hippocrene, 1982, {{ISBN|978-0-88254-658-2}}, p.&nbsp;127, reproduces four of Stokowski's seating plans, of which illustration No. 2 shows the string sections as here described.</ref>
[[File:Philadelphia Orchestra at American premiere of Mahler's 8th Symphony (1916).jpg|thumb|250px|Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra at 2 March 1916 American premiere of [[Gustav Mahler|Mahler]]'s [[Symphony of a Thousand|8th Symphony]]]]
Stokowski also became known for modifying the [[orchestration]]s of some of the works that he conducted, as was a standard practice for conductors prior to the second half of the 20th century. Among others, he amended the orchestrations of [[Ludwig van Beethoven|Beethoven]], [[Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky|Tchaikovsky]], [[Jean Sibelius|Sibelius]], [[Johann Sebastian Bach]], and [[Johannes Brahms|Brahms]]. For example, Stokowski revised the ending of the ''[[Romeo and Juliet (Tchaikovsky)|Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture]]'', by Tchaikovsky, so it would close quietly, taking his notion from [[Modest Ilyich Tchaikovsky|Modest Tchaikovsky]]'s ''Life and Letters of Peter Ilych Tchaikovsky'' (translated by [[Rosa Newmarch]]: 1906) that the composer had provided a quiet ending of his own at [[Mily Balakirev|Balakirev]]'s suggestion. Stokowski made his own orchestration of [[Modest Mussorgsky|Mussorgsky]]'s ''[[Night on Bald Mountain]]'' by adapting [[Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov|Rimsky-Korsakov]]'s orchestration and making it sound, in some places, similar to Mussorgsky's original. In the film ''[[Fantasia (1940 film)|Fantasia]]'', to conform to the Disney artists' story-line, depicting the battle between good and evil, the ending of ''[[Night on Bald Mountain]]'' segued into the beginning of [[Franz Schubert|Schubert]]'s ''[[Ellens dritter Gesang|Ave Maria]]''.

Many music critics have taken exception to the liberties Stokowski took—liberties which were common in the nineteenth century, but had mostly died out in the twentieth, when faithful adherence to the composer's scores became more common.<ref>{{cite book|last=Schonberg|first=Harold C.|author-link=Harold C. Schonberg|title=The Lives of the Great Composers|location=New York|publisher=Simon and Schuster|year=1967|isbn=0-393-02146-7}}</ref>{{ external media|float=right|width=230px|audio1 = Listen to Leopold Stokowski conducting [[Sergei Rachmaninoff]]'s ''[[Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini]]'' with the Philadelphia Orchestra and [[Sergei Rachmaninoff]] in 1934 [https://archive.org/details/RACHMANINOFFRhapsodyOnAThemeByPaganini-Rachmaninoff-NEWTRANSFER '''at archive.org''']}}Stokowski's repertoire was broad and included many contemporary works. He was the only conductor to perform all of [[Arnold Schoenberg]]'s orchestral works during the composer's own lifetime, several of which were world premieres. Stokowski gave the first American performance of Schoenberg's ''[[Gurre-Lieder]]'' in 1932. It was recorded "live" on 78&nbsp;rpm records and remained the only recording of this work in the catalogue until the advent of the [[LP Record]]. Stokowski also presented the American premieres of four of [[Dmitri Shostakovich]]'s symphonies, Numbers 1, 3, 6, and 11. In 1916, Stokowski conducted the American premiere of [[Gustav Mahler|Mahler's]] [[Symphony No. 8 (Mahler)|8th Symphony, ''Symphony of a Thousand'']], whose premiere he had attended in Munich on 12 September 1910.<ref>{{Cite web|date=23 March 2016|title=Mahler: The Symphonies in Sequence, Symphony No. 8 {{!}} Carnegie Hall|url=http://www.carnegiehall.org/article.aspx?id=4294967687|access-date=27 December 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160323193453/http://www.carnegiehall.org/article.aspx?id=4294967687|archive-date=23 March 2016 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|date=18 April 1982|title=MUSIC VIEW; STOKOWSKI'S LEGEND – MICKEY MOUSE TO MAHLER|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1982/04/18/arts/music-view-stokowski-s-legend-mickey-mouse-to-mahler.html|access-date=27 December 2021|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> He added works by [[Sergei Rachmaninoff|Rachmaninoff]] to his repertoire, giving the world premieres of his [[Piano Concerto No. 4 (Rachmaninoff)|Fourth Piano Concerto]], the ''[[Three Russian Songs, Op. 41 (Rachmaninoff)|Three Russian Songs]]'', the [[Symphony No. 3 (Rachmaninoff)|Third Symphony]], and the ''[[Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini]]''; [[Jean Sibelius|Sibelius]], whose last three symphonies were given their American premieres in Philadelphia in the 1920s; and [[Igor Stravinsky]], many of whose works were also given their first American performances by Stokowski. In 1922, he introduced Stravinsky's score for the ballet ''[[The Rite of Spring]]'' to America, gave its first staged performance there in 1930 with [[Martha Graham]] dancing the part of The Chosen One, and at the same time made the first American recording of the work.{{Citation needed|date=July 2014}}

Seldom an opera conductor, Stokowski did give the American premieres in Philadelphia of the original version of Mussorgky's ''[[Boris Godunov (opera)|Boris Godunov]]'' (1929) and [[Alban Berg]]'s ''[[Wozzeck]]'' (1931). Works by such composers as [[Arthur Bliss]], [[Max Bruch]], [[Ferruccio Busoni]], [[Julian Carrillo]], [[Carlos Chávez]], [[Aaron Copland]], [[George Enescu]], [[Manuel de Falla]], [[Paul Hindemith]], [[Gustav Holst]], [[Gian Francesco Malipiero]], [[Nikolai Myaskovsky]], [[Walter Piston]], [[Francis Poulenc]], [[Sergei Prokofiev]], [[Maurice Ravel]], [[Ottorino Respighi]], [[Albert Roussel]], [[Alexander Scriabin]], [[Elie Siegmeister]], [[Karol Szymanowski]], [[Edgard Varèse]], [[Heitor Villa-Lobos]], [[Anton Webern]], and [[Kurt Weill]], received their American premieres under Stokowski's direction in Philadelphia. In 1933, he started "Youth Concerts" for younger audiences, which are still a tradition in Philadelphia and many other American cities, and fostered youth music programs. After disputes with the board, Stokowski began to withdraw from involvement in the Philadelphia Orchestra from 1936 onwards, allowing his co-conductor [[Eugene Ormandy]] to gradually take over. Stokowski shared principal conducting duties with Ormandy from 1936 to 1941; Stokowski did not appear with the Philadelphia Orchestra from the closing concert of the 1940–41 season (a lackluster performance of Bach's ''[[St Matthew Passion|St. Matthew Passion]]'') until 12 February 1960, when he guest-conducted the Philadelphia in works of Mozart, Falla, Respighi, and in a legendary performance of the Shostakovich Fifth Symphony, arguably the greatest by Stokowski. The recording of this concert's broadcast had been circulated privately among collectors over the years, though never issued commercially, but with the copyright expiring at the start of 2011, it was released in its entirety on the Pristine Classical label.<ref>Pristine Classical, "Stokowski's Return to Philadelphia," https://www.pristineclassical.com/products/pasc264?_pos=8&_sid=233a69ff1&_ss=r. Retrieved 17 December 2024.</ref> 

Stokowski appeared as himself in the motion picture ''[[The Big Broadcast of 1937]]'', conducting two of his Bach transcriptions. That same year he also conducted and acted in ''[[One Hundred Men and a Girl]]'', with [[Deanna Durbin]] and [[Adolphe Menjou]]. In 1939, Stokowski collaborated with [[Walt Disney]] to create the motion picture for which he is best known: ''[[Fantasia (1940 film)|Fantasia]]''. He conducted all the music (with the exception of a "jam session" in the middle of the film) and included his own orchestrations for Bach's ''[[Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565|Toccata and Fugue in D minor]]'' and Mussorgsky's/Schubert's ''Night on Bald Mountain''/''Ave Maria''. Stokowski even got to talk to (and shake hands with) [[Mickey Mouse]] on screen, in a famous [[silhouette]] footage;<ref>{{Cite web|title=Quando Disney incontrò Stravinsky – Cinema|url=https://www.raicultura.it/cinema/foto/2021/03/Quando-Disney-incontro-Stravinsky-6ce2b4e0-c90a-47ca-97d0-d6e244ec551b.html|access-date=27 December 2021|website=Rai Cultura|language=it}}</ref> though, he would later say with a smile that Mickey Mouse got to shake hands with him.<ref>This footage of Stokowski took place after the third number of the program, [[Paul Dukas]]' ''[[The Sorcerer's Apprentice (Dukas)|The Sorcerer's Apprentice]]''; it was later incorporated into ''[[Fantasia 2000]]'' (1999) and tributed with a new animation of Mickey Mouse shaking hands and dialoguing with ''Fantasia 2000'' conductor, [[James Levine]].</ref>

A lifelong and ardent fan of the newest and most experimental techniques in recording, Stokowski saw to it that most of the music for ''Fantasia'' was recorded over Class A telephone lines laid down between the Academy of Music in Philadelphia and [[Bell Laboratories]] in Camden NJ, using an early, highly complex version of multi-track stereophonic sound, dubbed [[Fantasound]], which shared many attributes with the later [[Perspecta]] stereophonic sound system. Recorded on photographic film, the only suitable medium then available, the results were considered astounding for the latter half of the 1930s.

Upon his return in 1960, Stokowski appeared with the Philadelphia Orchestra as a guest conductor. He also made two LP recordings with them for [[Columbia Records]], one including a performance of [[Manuel de Falla]]'s ''[[El amor brujo]]'', which he had introduced to America in 1922 and had previously recorded for RCA Victor with the [[Hollywood Bowl Symphony Orchestra]] in 1946, and a Bach album which featured the 5th Brandenburg Concerto and three of his own Bach transcriptions. He continued to appear as a guest conductor on several more occasions, his final Philadelphia Orchestra concert taking place in 1969.<ref>{{cite book|last=Smith|first=William Ander|title=The Mystery of Leopold Stokowski|date=1990|publisher=Fairleigh Dickinson University Press|location=United States|isbn=0-8386-3362-5|page=216}}</ref>

In honour of Stokowski's vast influence on music and the Philadelphia performing arts community, on 24 February 1969, he was awarded the prestigious [[University of Pennsylvania Glee Club]] Award of Merit.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dolphin.upenn.edu/gleeclub/MEMBERS_merit.html|title=The University of Pennsylvania Glee Club Award of Merit Recipients|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120209191432/http://www.dolphin.upenn.edu/gleeclub/MEMBERS_merit.html|archive-date= 9 February 2012 }}</ref> Beginning in 1964, this award was "established to bring a declaration of appreciation to an individual each year that has made a significant contribution to the world of music and helped to create a climate in which our talents may find valid expression."{{Citation needed|date=July 2014}}

===All-American Youth Orchestra===
With his Philadelphia Orchestra contract having expired in 1940, Stokowski immediately formed the All-American Youth Orchestra, its players' ages ranging from 18 to 25. It toured South America in 1940 and North America in 1941 and was met with rave reviews. Although Stokowski made a number of recordings with the AAYO for Columbia, the technical standard was not as high as had been achieved with the Philadelphia Orchestra for RCA Victor. In any event, the AAYO was disbanded when America entered the [[Second World War]], and plans for another extensive tour in 1942 were abandoned.{{Citation needed|date=July 2014}}

===NBC Symphony Orchestra===
During this time, Stokowski also became chief conductor of the [[NBC Symphony Orchestra]] on a three-year contract (1941–1944). [[Arturo Toscanini]], the NBC Symphony's regular conductor, did not wish to undertake the 1941–42 NBC season due to friction with NBC management, though he did accept guest engagements with the Philadelphia Orchestra and continued to conduct [[war bond]] concerts with the NBC Symphony. Stokowski conducted a great deal of contemporary music with the NBC Symphony, including the US premiere of [[Sergei Prokofiev|Prokofiev]]'s ''[[Alexander Nevsky (Prokofiev)|Alexander Nevsky]]'' in 1943, the world premieres of [[Arnold Schoenberg|Schoenberg]]'s Piano Concerto (with [[Eduard Steuermann]]) and [[George Antheil]]'s 4th Symphony, both in 1944, and new works by [[Alan Hovhaness]], [[Igor Stravinsky|Stravinsky]], [[Paul Hindemith|Hindemith]], [[Darius Milhaud|Milhaud]], [[Howard Hanson]], [[William Schuman]], [[Morton Gould]] and many others. He also conducted several British works with this orchestra, including [[Ralph Vaughan Williams|Vaughan Williams]]' [[Symphony No. 4 (Vaughan Williams)|4th Symphony]], [[Gustav Holst|Holst]]'s ''[[The Planets]]'', and [[George Butterworth]]'s ''[[A Shropshire Lad (rhapsody)|A Shropshire Lad]]''. Stokowski also made a number of recordings with the NBC Symphony for RCA Victor in 1941–42, including [[Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky|Tchaikovsky]]'s [[Symphony No. 4 (Tchaikovsky)|4th Symphony]], a work which was never in Toscanini's repertoire, and [[Igor Stravinsky|Stravinsky]]'s ''[[The Firebird|Firebird]]'' Suite. Toscanini returned to the NBC Symphony in 1942; he and Stokowski shared conducting duties for the remaining two years of Stokowski's contract.

===New York City Symphony Orchestra===
In 1944, on the recommendation of Mayor [[Fiorello La Guardia]], Stokowski helped form the New York City Symphony Orchestra, which they intended would make music accessible for middle-class workers. Ticket prices were set low, and performances took place at convenient, after-work hours. Many early concerts were standing room only; however, a year later in 1945, Stokowski was at odds with the board (who wanted to trim expenses even further) and he resigned. Stokowski made three 78&nbsp;pm sets with the New York City Symphony for RCA Victor: [[Ludwig van Beethoven|Beethoven]]'s [[Symphony No. 6 (Beethoven)|6th Symphony]], [[Richard Strauss]]'s ''[[Death and Transfiguration]]'', and a selection of orchestral music from [[Georges Bizet]]'s ''[[Carmen]]''.
{{ external media | float = right|width=230px |audio1 = Listen to Leopold Stokowski conducting his orchestral transcriptions of works by [[Johann Sebastian Bach]] with the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1931–1941 [https://archive.org/details/J.S.BACH-OrchestralTranscriptions-NEWTRANSFER/02.Bach-stokowski-ChoralePreludenunKommDerHeidenHeilend.mp3 <br>'''at archive.org''']}}

===Hollywood Bowl Symphony Orchestra===
In 1945, he founded the [[Hollywood Bowl Symphony Orchestra]]. The orchestra lasted for two years before it was disbanded for live concerts, but not for recordings, which continued well into the 1960s. Stokowski's own recordings (made in 1945–46) included [[Johannes Brahms|Brahms]]'s [[Symphony No. 1 (Brahms)|1st Symphony]], Tchaikovsky's [[Symphony No. 6 (Tchaikovsky)|''Pathetique'' Symphony]] and a number of short popular pieces. Some of Stokowski's open-air HBSO concerts were broadcast and recorded, and have been issued on CD, including a collaboration with [[Percy Grainger]] on [[Edvard Grieg]]'s [[Piano Concerto (Grieg)|Piano Concerto in A minor]] in the summer of 1945. He premiered "From A Moonlit Ceremony" (Moonlit Peace) by [[George Frederick McKay]] in 1946 with Hollywood Bowl Symphony Orchestra.<ref>Hollywood Bowl Symphony Yearbook 1946.</ref> (It began giving live concerts again as the "[[Hollywood Bowl Orchestra]]" in 1991, under [[John Mauceri]]).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hollywoodbowl.com/music/hollywood_bowl_orch.cfm|title=Hollywood Bowl Orchestra|access-date=1 January 2008|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071213083321/http://www.hollywoodbowl.com/music/hollywood_bowl_orch.cfm|archive-date=13 December 2007}}</ref> There was a 1949 cartoon spoof of Stokowski at the Bowl with [[Bugs Bunny]] playing the conductor in "[[Long-Haired Hare]]" by [[Chuck Jones]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hollywoodbowl.com/about/history.cfm|title=History of the Hollywood Bowl|access-date=1 January 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100722114340/http://www.hollywoodbowl.com/about/history.cfm|archive-date=22 July 2010|url-status=dead}}</ref>

===New York Philharmonic===
He continued to appear frequently with the [[Los Angeles Philharmonic]], both at the [[Hollywood Bowl]] and other venues. Then in 1946 Stokowski became a chief Guest Conductor of the [[New York Philharmonic]]. His many first performances with them included the US premiere of [[Sergei Prokofiev|Prokofiev]]'s [[Symphony No. 6 (Prokofiev)|6th Symphony]] in 1949. He also made many splendid recordings with the NYPO for Columbia, including the world premiere recordings of [[Ralph Vaughan Williams|Vaughan Williams]]'s [[Symphony No. 6 (Vaughan Williams)|6th Symphony]]<ref>{{cite journal|last=Atlas|first=Allan W.|year=2018|title=''Vaughan Williams and the New York Philharmonic: three glimpses behind the scenes''|journal=The Musical Times|volume=159|issue=1943|page=85}}</ref> and [[Olivier Messiaen]]'s ''[[L'Ascension]]'', also in 1949.<ref>Discerning Discs, ''The Carmel Spectator'', 1 December 1949, p.6</ref>

[[File:Leopold Stokowski - Carnegie Hall 1947 (05) wmplayer 2013-04-16.jpg|thumb|Screenshot from the 1947 film ''[[Carnegie Hall (film)|Carnegie Hall]]'']]

===International career===
However, when in 1950 [[Dimitri Mitropoulos]] was appointed Chief Conductor of the NYPO, Stokowski began a new international career which commenced in 1951 with a nationwide tour of England: during the Festival of Britain celebrations he conducted the [[Royal Philharmonic Orchestra]] at the invitation of Sir [[Thomas Beecham]]. It was during this first visit that he made his debut recording with a British orchestra, the [[Philharmonia Orchestra]], of [[Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov|Rimsky-Korsakov]]'s ''[[Scheherazade (Rimsky-Korsakov)|Scheherazade]]''. During that same summer he also toured and conducted in Germany, Holland, Switzerland, Austria, and Portugal, establishing a pattern of guest-conducting abroad during the summer months while spending the winter seasons conducting in the United States. This scheme was to hold good for the next 20 years during which Stokowski conducted many of the world's greatest orchestras, simultaneously making recordings with them for various labels. Thus he conducted and recorded with the main London orchestras as well as the [[Berlin Philharmonic]], the [[Orchestre de la Suisse Romande]], the [[Orchestre National de France|French National Radio Orchestra]], the [[Czech Philharmonic]], the [[Radio Filharmonisch Orkest|Hilversum (Netherlands) Radio Philharmonic]], and others.{{Citation needed|date=July 2014}}

===Symphony of the Air, Houston Symphony Orchestra===
Stokowski returned to the NBC Symphony Orchestra in 1954 for a series of recording sessions for RCA Victor. The repertoire included Beethoven's 'Pastoral' Symphony, Sibelius's 2nd Symphony, Acts 2 and 3 of Tchaikovsky's ''[[Swan Lake]]'' and highlights from [[Camille Saint-Saëns|Saint-Saëns]]'s ''[[Samson and Delilah (opera)|Samson and Delilah]]'' with [[Risë Stevens]] and [[Jan Peerce]]. After the NBC Symphony Orchestra was disbanded as the official ensemble of the NBC radio network, it was re-formed as the [[Symphony of the Air]] with Stokowski as notional Music Director, and as such performed many concerts and made recordings from 1954 until 1963. The US premiere in 1958 of Turkish composer [[Ahmet Adnan Saygun]]'s oratorio ''[[Yunus Emre]]'' is among them. He made a series of [[Symphony of the Air]] recordings for the [[United Artists]] label in 1958 which included Beethoven's 7th Symphony, Shostakovich's 1st Symphony, Khatchaturian's 2nd Symphony and Respighi's ''[[Pines of Rome]]''. From 1955 to 1961, Stokowski was also the Music Director of the [[Houston Symphony]]. For his debut appearance with the orchestra he gave the first performance of [[Symphony No. 2 (Hovhaness)|''Mysterious Mountain'']] by [[Alan Hovhaness]] – one of many living American composers whose music he championed over the years. He also gave the US premiere in Houston of Shostakovich's [[Symphony No. 11 (Shostakovich)|11th Symphony]] (7 April 1958) and made its first American recording on the [[Capitol Records|Capitol]] label.{{Citation needed|date=July 2014}}

===American Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and London===
[[File:Leopold Stokowski (1970).jpg|thumb|upright|Leopold Stokowski (1970)]]
In 1960, Stokowski made one of his infrequent appearances in the opera house, when he conducted [[Giacomo Puccini]]'s ''[[Turandot]]'' at the New York Metropolitan, in memorable performances with a cast that included [[Birgit Nilsson]], [[Franco Corelli]] and [[Anna Moffo]]. At the [[New York City Opera]], he had led double-bills of ''Œdipus rex'' (with [[Richard Cassilly]]) and ''Carmina Burana'' (1959), as well as ''L'Orfeo'' (with [[Gérard Souzay]]) and ''Il prigioniero'' (with [[Norman Treigle]], 1960).

In 1962, at the age of 80, Stokowski founded the [[American Symphony Orchestra]] (ASO). His championship of the 20th-century composer remained undiminished, and perhaps his most celebrated premiere with the American Symphony Orchestra was of [[Charles Ives]]'s [[Symphony No. 4 (Ives)|4th Symphony]] in 1965, which CBS also recorded. In addition, he continued to collaborate with noted contemporary soloists of the time including the pianist [[Glenn Gould]] in a recording of Beethoven's [[Piano Concerto No. 5 (Beethoven)|Piano Concerto No. 5, Op 73 "Emperor Concerto"]] in 1966.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/beethoven-piano-no.-5-emperor-concerto-glenn-gould-american-symphony-orchestra-stokowski-1966 Leopold Stokowski & Glenn Gould performing Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major "Emperor Concerto" '''at archive.org''']</ref> Stokowski served as Music Director for the ASO until May 1972 when, at the age of 90, he returned to live in England. On 3 January 1962, still showing his interest in using technological innovation, he was featured in a telecast for [[WGN-TV]] conducting the [[Chicago Symphony Orchestra]], which has since been made available on DVD.<ref>Video Artists International</ref> One of his British guest conducting engagements in the 1960s was the first Proms performance of [[Gustav Mahler]]'s [[Symphony No. 2 (Mahler)|Second Symphony, ''Resurrection'']], since issued on CD.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2004/feb/13/classicalmusicandopera.shopping2|title=Mahler: Symphony No. 2, Woodland/ Baker/ BBC Chorus and Choral Soc/ LSO/ Stokowski|newspaper=The Guardian|author=Edward Greenfield|date=13 February 2004|access-date=11 April 2007}}</ref>

Stokowski continued to conduct for a few more years, but failing health forced him to conduct only for recording sessions. An eyewitness said that Stokowski often conducted sitting down in his later years; sometimes, as he became involved in the performance, he would stand up and conduct with remarkable energy. His last public appearance in the UK took place at the Royal Albert Hall, London, on 14 May 1974. Stokowski led the New Philharmonia in the 'Merry Waltz' of [[Otto Klemperer]] (in tribute to the Philharmonia's former Music Director who had died the previous year), [[Ralph Vaughan Williams|Vaughan Williams]]'s ''[[Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis]]'', [[Maurice Ravel|Ravel]]'s ''[[Rapsodie espagnole]]'' and [[Johannes Brahms|Brahms]]'s [[Symphony No. 4 (Brahms)|4th Symphony]].
Stokowski's final public appearance took place on 22 July 1975 during the Vence Music Festival in the South of France. He conducted the Rouen Chamber Orchestra in several of his own transcriptions of Bach.{{Citation needed|date=July 2014}}
{{ external media | float = right|width=230px |audio1 =1: Listen to Leopold Stokowski conducting [[Modest Mussorgsky]]'s ''[[Pictures at an Exhibition]]'' with the [[Philharmonia Orchestra|New Philharmonia Orchestra]] in 1965 [https://archive.org/details/MUSSORGSKY-STOKOWSKIPicturesAtAnExhibition-1965 '''at archive.org''']}}

===Last years===
Stokowski gave his last world premiere in 1973 when, at the age of 91, he conducted [[Havergal Brian]]'s 28th Symphony in a BBC radio broadcast with the New Philharmonia Orchestra. In August 1973, Stokowski conducted the International Festival Youth Orchestra at [[Royal Albert Hall]] in London, performing Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony. Edward Greenfield of The Guardian wrote: "Stokowski rallied them as though it was a vintage Philadelphia concert of the 1920s". Stokowski continued to make recordings even after he had retired from the concert platform, mainly with the National Philharmonic, another ad-hoc orchestra made up of first-desk players chosen from the main London orchestras. In 1976, he signed a recording contract with Columbia Records that would have kept him active until he was 100 years old.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2002/mar/13/artsfeatures1|title=Age cannot wither them|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|author=Paul Vaughan|date=13 March 2002|access-date=11 April 2007}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1977/09/19/archives/prolific-and-pulsating-legacy-of-stokowski-remains-on-disk.html|title=Prolific and Pulsating Legacy Of Stokowski Remains on Disk|first=Peter G.|last=Davis|date=19 September 1977|website=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref>

Stokowski died of a heart attack on 13 September 1977 at his [[Nether Wallop]], Hampshire, residence at the age of 95.<ref>Allen Hughes, [https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9902E1DD163AE334BC4C52DFBF66838C669EDE&legacy=true "Leopold Stokowski Is Dead of a Heart Attack at 95"], ''The New York Times'', 14 September 1977.</ref> His very last recordings, made shortly before his death, for [[Columbia Records|Columbia]], included performances of the youthful [[Symphony in C (Bizet)|Symphony in C]] by [[Georges Bizet]] and [[Felix Mendelssohn]]'s [[Symphony No. 4 (Mendelssohn)|4th Symphony, "Italian"]], with the [[National Philharmonic Orchestra]] in London.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.amazon.com/Mendelssohn-Bizet-Italian-Symphony-Major/dp/B00000DS1T|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070509010408/http://www.amazon.com/Mendelssohn-Bizet-Italian-Symphony-Major/dp/B00000DS1T|archive-date = 9 May 2007|title = Mendelssohn: Symphony 4 " Italian "/Bizet: Symphony in C| publisher=Amazon.com }}</ref> He is interred at [[East Finchley Cemetery]].<ref name=cemetery>[http://www.westminster.gov.uk/communityandliving/burials/eastfinchley.cfm East Finchley Cemetery infosite], Westminster.gov.uk. Retrieved 21 July 2014.</ref>

==Recording==
[[File:Portrait photograph of Leopold Stokowski.jpg|thumb|upright|Portrait of Stokowski in 1926]]
Stokowski made his very first recordings, with the Philadelphia Orchestra, for the [[Victor Talking Machine Company]] in October 1917, beginning with two of [[Johannes Brahms|Brahms]]' ''[[Hungarian Dances (Brahms)|Hungarian Dances]]''. Other works recorded in the early sessions were the scherzo from [[Felix Mendelssohn|Mendelssohn]]'s ''[[A Midsummer Night's Dream (Mendelssohn)|A Midsummer Night's Dream]]'' [[incidental music]] and "Dance of the Blessed Spirits" from [[Christoph Willibald Gluck|Gluck]]'s ''[[Orfeo ed Euridice]].''<ref>Abram Chasins, p. 93</ref> He found ways to make the best use of the acoustic recording process, until electric recording was introduced by Victor in the spring of 1925. He conducted the first orchestral electrical recording to be made in America ([[Camille Saint-Saëns|Saint-Saëns]]'s ''[[Danse macabre (Saint-Saëns)|Danse Macabre]]'') in April 1925. The following month Stokowski recorded ''[[Marche Slave]]'' by [[Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky|Tchaikovsky]], in which he increased the double basses to best use the lower frequencies of early electrical recording. Stokowski was also the first conductor in America to record all four of Brahms' symphonies (between 1927 and 1933).{{Citation needed|date=July 2014}}

{{ external media | float = right|width=230px |audio1 = Listen to Stokowski conducting his orchestration of [[Franz Liszt]]'s ''[[Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2]]'' with the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1927 [https://archive.org/details/LisztHungarianRhapsodyNo.2_689 '''at archive.org''']}}

Stokowski made the first US recordings of the [[Ludwig van Beethoven|Beethoven]] 7th and 9th Symphonies, [[Antonín Dvořák]]'s [[Symphony No. 9 (Dvořák)|''New World'' Symphony]], [[Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky]]'s [[Symphony No. 4 (Tchaikovsky)|4th Symphony]] and ''[[The Nutcracker|Nutcracker Suite]]'', [[César Franck]]'s [[Symphony in D minor (Franck)|Symphony in D minor]], [[Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov]]'s ''Scheherazade'', [[Sergei Rachmaninoff]]'s [[Piano Concerto No. 2 (Rachmaninoff)|2nd Piano Concerto]] (with the composer as soloist), [[Jean Sibelius]]'s [[Symphony No. 4 (Sibelius)|4th Symphony]] (its first recording), [[Dmitri Shostakovich]]'s [[Symphony No. 5 (Shostakovich)|5th]] and [[Symphony No. 6 (Shostakovich)|6th]] Symphonies, and many shorter works. His early recordings were made at Victor's Trinity Church studio in [[Camden, New Jersey]] until 1926, when Victor began recording the orchestra in the [[Academy of Music (Philadelphia)|Academy of Music]] in [[Philadelphia]]. Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra later participated in long playing, high fidelity, and stereophonic experiments, during the early 1930s, mostly for [[Bell Laboratories]]<ref>Fox, Barry (24–31 December 1981) [https://books.google.com/books?id=Vb5Mz6DmutYC&q=stokowski&pg=PA908 "A hundred years of stereo: fifty of hi-fi"], ''Scientific American'', pp 910–911. Retrieved 1 March 2012.</ref> (Victor even released some early [[Long Playing Record]]s around this time, which were not commercially successful for several reasons). Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra continued to make records exclusively for Victor through December 1940. One of his last 1940 sessions was the world premiere recording of Shostakovich's sixth symphony. In addition to [[RCA Red Seal|RCA Victor]], Stokowski recorded prodigiously for several other labels until shortly before his death, including [[Columbia Records|Columbia]], [[Capitol Records|Capitol]], [[EMI Records|EMI]]/[[His Master's Voice (British record label)|His Master's Voice]], [[Everest Records|Everest]], [[United Artists]], and [[Decca Records|Decca]]/London. {{Citation needed|date=July 2014}}

In 1954, Stokowski made his first commercial stereo recordings with the [[NBC Symphony Orchestra]] for RCA Victor. These records were of excerpts from Prokofiev's ballet ''[[Romeo and Juliet (Prokofiev)|Romeo and Juliet]]'' and the complete one-act ballet ''Sebastian'' by [[Gian Carlo Menotti]]. From 1947 to 1953, Stokowski recorded for RCA Victor with a specially assembled 'ad hoc' band of players drawn principally from the New York Philharmonic and NBC Symphony Orchestras. The records were credited to 'Leopold Stokowski and His Symphony Orchestra' and the repertoire ranged from [[Joseph Haydn|Haydn]] (his ''[[Symphony No. 53 (Haydn)|Imperial]]'' Symphony) to [[Arnold Schoenberg|Schoenberg]] (''[[Verklärte Nacht|Transfigured Night]]'') by way of [[Robert Schumann|Schumann]], [[Franz Liszt|Liszt]], [[Georges Bizet|Bizet]], [[Richard Wagner|Wagner]], Tchaikovsky, [[Claude Debussy|Debussy]], [[Ralph Vaughan Williams]], [[Sibelius]] and [[Percy Grainger]]. Stokowski's recordings for [[Capitol Records]] in the 1950s were distinguished by the use of three-track stereophonic tape recorders.{{Citation needed|date=July 2014}}

Stokowski was very careful in the placement of musicians during recording sessions and worked closely with the recording staff to achieve the best possible results. Some of the sessions took place in the ballroom of the Riverside Plaza Hotel in New York City in January and February 1957; these were produced by Richard C. Jones and engineered by Frank Abbey with Stokowski's own orchestra, which was typically drawn from New York musicians (primarily members of the [[Symphony of the Air]]). The CD reissue by [[EMI]] included selections originally released on two LPs – ''The Orchestra'' and ''Landmarks of a Distinguished Career''—and featured music of [[Paul Dukas]], [[Samuel Barber]], [[Richard Strauss]], [[Harold Farberman]], [[Vincent Persichetti]], Tchaikovsky, [[Modest Mussorgsky|Mussorgsky]], Debussy, [[Johann Sebastian Bach|Bach]] (as arranged by Stokowski), and Sibelius.<ref>Warner Classics liner notes</ref> Although he officially used the [[Maurice Ravel|Ravel]] orchestration of the finale to Mussorgsky's ''Pictures at an Exhibition'' in his 1957 Capitol recording, he did add a few additional percussion instruments to the score. His Capitol recording of [[Gustav Holst|Holst]]'s ''[[The Planets]]'' was made with the [[Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra]]. EMI, which acquired [[Angel Records]] and Capitol in the 1950s, reissued many of Stokowski's Capitol recordings on CD; these recordings are now controlled by [[Warner Classics]], as EMI ceased to exist in 2013. All of the music that Stokowski conducted in ''Fantasia'' was released on a 3-LP set by [[Disneyland Records]], in the 1957 soundtrack album made from the film. After stereo became possible on phonograph records, the album was released in stereo on [[Buena Vista Records]]. With the advent of [[compact discs]], it appeared on a 2-CD [[Walt Disney Records]] set, in conjunction with the film's 50th anniversary.{{Citation needed|date=July 2014}}

In 1958, Stokowski signed a contract with [[Everest Records]], which was noted for its use of 35&nbsp;mm film instead of tape and the resulting highly vivid sound. One of Stokowski's most notable Everest recordings was a coupling of Tchaikovsky's ''[[Francesca da Rimini (Tchaikovsky)|Francesca da Rimini]]'' and ''[[Hamlet (Tchaikovsky)|Hamlet]]'' with the New York Stadium Symphony Orchestra (the summer name for the New York Philharmonic). Stokowski's other remarkable Everest recordings include [[Heitor Villa-Lobos|Villa-Lobos]]' tone poem ''[[Uirapuru (Villa-Lobos)|Uirapuru]]'', Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5 and Prokofiev's ballet suite ''[[Cinderella (Prokofiev)|Cinderella]]''. Several of Stokowski's televised concerts have been issued on both VHS and DVD, including Beethoven's 5th Symphony and Schubert's [[Symphony No. 8 (Schubert)|''Unfinished'' Symphony]] with the London Philharmonic on EMI Classics 'Classic Archive' label; the Nielsen 2nd Symphony with the Danish Radio Orchestra on VAI (Video Artists International); and Charles Ives' [[Symphony No. 4 (Ives)|4th Symphony]] with the American Symphony Orchestra on Classical Video Rarities.

In 1973, Stokowski was invited by the International Festival of Youth Orchestras to conduct the 1973 International Festival Orchestra, numbering 140 of the world's finest young musicians, in a performance of Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony at the Royal Albert Hall, London. The Cameo Classics LP label recorded the concert, and also, by special permission of the maestro, the final rehearsals, which would make up a 2-LP set. Edward Greenfield in ''[[The Guardian]]'' reported "Stokowski rallied them as though it was a vintage Philadelphia concert of the 1920s". Robert M. Stumpff ll (Leopold Stokowski Club of America) called the performance "The finest ever performance of this symphony". This unique Dolby recording was restored in 2014 by Klassik Haus and is available from Cameo Classics on CD (Nimbus Records Distribution).{{Citation needed|date=July 2014}}

==Personal life==
===Marriages===
Stokowski married three times. His first wife was American concert pianist [[Olga Samaroff]], to whom he was married from 24 April 1911 until their divorce on 30 July 1923. They had one daughter: Sonya Maria Noel Stokowski (24 December 1921 – 19 March 2025),<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.stokowski.org/Leopold%20Stokowski%20Biography.htm|title=Leopold Stokowski Biography|publisher=The Stokowski Legacy|author=Larry Huffman|access-date=1 November 2016}}</ref> an actress.

His second wife was [[Johnson & Johnson]] heiress Evangeline Love Brewster Johnson, an artist and aviator, to whom he was married from 11 January 1926 until their divorce on 2 December 1937. They had two daughters: Gloria Luba Stokowski and Andrea Sadja Stokowski. In March 1938, Stokowski began a highly publicised relationship with film actress [[Greta Garbo]] after the two vacationed together in Italy, on the island of [[Capri]].<ref>New York Times 2 March 1938</ref> Whether or not their relationship was romantic or platonic was the subject of much speculation and scrutiny in the [[news media|press]].

On 21 April 1945, Stokowski married heiress and actress [[Gloria Vanderbilt]]. They had two sons, Leopold Stanislaus Stokowski (born 1950) and Christopher Stokowski (born 1952). They divorced on 29 October 1955.<ref>[[Margery Lewis|Lewis, Margery]] (photographer) ‘LIFE visits the Stokowski Family’ ''LIFE'' 7 September 1953, Vol. 35, No. 10. ISSN 0024-3019. pps. 122–124</ref>

[[File:Stokowski Leopold grave.jpg|right|upright|thumb|Stokowski's grave at [[East Finchley Cemetery]].]]

==Legacy==
After Stokowski's death, Tom Burnam writes, the "concatenation of canards" that had arisen around him was revived—that his name and accent were phony; that his musical education was deficient; that his musicians did not respect him; that he cared about nobody but himself. Burnam suggests that there was a dark, hidden reason for these rumours. Stokowski deplored the segregation of symphony orchestras in which women and minorities were excluded, and, Burnam claims, his detractors got revenge by slandering him. Nevertheless, and notwithstanding Burnam's claims, attitudes towards Stokowski have changed dramatically since his death. In 1999, for ''[[Gramophone (magazine)|Gramophone]]'' magazine, the noted music commentator [[David Mellor]] wrote: "One of the great joys of recent years for me has been the reassessment of Leopold Stokowski. When I was growing up there was a tendency to disparage the old man as a charlatan. Today it is all very different. Stokowski is now recognised as the father of modern orchestral standards. He possessed a truly magical gift of extracting a burnished sound from both great and second-rank ensembles. He also loved the process of recording and his gramophone career was a constant quest for better recorded sound. But the greatest pleasure of all for me is his acceptance now as an outstanding conductor of nineteenth- and twentieth-century music, including a lot that was at the cutting edge of contemporary achievement."{{Citation needed|date=July 2014}}

His collection of 935 orchestral scores and 215 orchestral transcriptions is now in the libraries of the [[University of Pennsylvania]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.library.upenn.edu/collections/notable/leopold-stokowski-collection|title=Leopold Stokowski Collection|publisher=University of Pennsylvania|access-date=2025-04-30}}</ref>

==Notable concert premieres==
* [[Edgard Varèse]], ''[[Ameriques]]'', [[Philadelphia Orchestra]], [[Philadelphia]], 9 April 1926
* [[Sergei Rachmaninoff]], [[Piano Concerto No. 4 (Rachmaninoff)|Fourth Piano Concerto]], composer as soloist, [[Philadelphia Orchestra]], 1927
* [[Sergei Rachmaninoff]], ''[[Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini]]'', composer as soloist, [[Philadelphia Orchestra]], [[Baltimore]], 7 November 1934
* [[Sergei Rachmaninoff]], [[Symphony No. 3 (Rachmaninoff)|Third Symphony]], [[Philadelphia Orchestra]], 1936
* [[Arnold Schoenberg]], [[Violin Concerto (Schoenberg)|Violin Concerto]], [[Louis Krasner]] as soloist, [[Philadelphia Orchestra]], 6 December 1940
* [[Arnold Schoenberg]], [[Piano Concerto (Schoenberg)|Piano Concerto]], [[Eduard Steuermann]] as soloist, [[NBC Symphony Orchestra]], New York City, 16 February 1944
* [[Nathaniel Shilkret]], [[Trombone Concerto (Shilkret)|Concerto for Trombone]], [[Tommy Dorsey]] as soloist, New York City Symphony Orchestra, 15 February 1945
* [[Elie Siegmeister]], Symphony No. 1, [[New York Philharmonic]], New York City, 30 October 1947
* [[Alan Hovhaness]], [[Symphony No. 2 (Hovhaness)|Symphony No. 2, ''Mysterious Mountain'']], [[Houston Symphony Orchestra]], [[Houston]], Texas, 1955
* [[Charles Ives]], [[Symphony No. 4 (Ives)|Fourth Symphony]], [[American Symphony Orchestra]], [[Carnegie Hall]], New York City, 26 April 1965

==Notable recording premieres==
{{ external media | float = right|width=230px |audio1 = Listen to Stokowski conducting [[Antonin Dvorak]]'s [[Symphony No. 9 (Dvorak)|Symphony No. 9 in E minor ''From the New World'', Op. 95]] with the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1927 [https://archive.org/details/DvorakSymphonyNo.9/02_dvorakSym9Mvmt2.mp3 <br>'''at archive.org''']}}

* [[Arnold Schoenberg]], [[Gurre-Lieder]], [[Philadelphia Orchestra]], 9 and 11 April 1932, RCA Victor
* [[Jean Sibelius]], [[Symphony No. 4 (Sibelius)|Fourth Symphony]], [[Philadelphia Orchestra]], 23 April 1932, RCA Victor
* Sergei Rachmaninoff, ''Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini'', composer as soloist, Philadelphia Orchestra, 24 December 1934, RCA Victor
* [[Dmitri Shostakovich]], [[Symphony No. 6 (Shostakovich)|Sixth Symphony]], [[Philadelphia Orchestra]], August 1940, RCA Victor
* [[Ralph Vaughan Williams]], [[Symphony No. 6 (Vaughan Williams)|Sixth Symphony]], [[Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra of New York]], 21 February 1949, Columbia
* [[Gustav Mahler]], [[Symphony No. 8 (Mahler)|Eighth Symphony]], [[New York Philharmonic|Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra of New York]], Westminster Choir, Schola Cantorum of New York, Public School Boys' Chorus, 9 April 1950, NYP Editions (first complete recording)

==In popular culture==
{{Portal|Classical music|Biography}}
* In the 1936 musical film ''[[Born to Dance]]'', during the "[[You'd be so Easy to Love]]"  sequence in [[Central Park]], [[James Stewart|Jimmy Stewart]] "conducts" [[Eleanor Powell]]'s dance with a balloon-seller's stick. A policeman ([[Reginald Gardiner]]) approaches, snaps Stewart's stick, shakes out his hair, retrieves a balloon stick for himself, and launches into 3 minutes of intense, speechless parody of Stokowski conducting orchestral variations on the theme—and faints.
* The 1940 [[Walt Disney]] animated film ''[[Fantasia (1940 film)|Fantasia]]'' stars Stokowski leading the [[Philadelphia Orchestra]] and performing, among other pieces of music, his transcription of [[Johann Sebastian Bach|Bach]]'s [[Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565|''Toccata and Fugue in D minor'', BWV 565]], as the opening piece of the program.
* A statue of the maestro shaking hands with [[Mickey Mouse]], a recreation of that memorable moment in ''Fantasia'', stands in the lobby of [[Disney's Contemporary Resort]] in [[Walt Disney World]] in [[Orlando, Florida]].
* The 1949  ''[[Looney Tunes]]'' episode "[[Long-Haired Hare]]" has a satirical homage to Stokowski: [[Bugs Bunny]] impersonates him at the Hollywood Bowl. The cartoon pokes gentle fun at Stokowski's habit of conducting without a baton by having Bugs break the baton handed to him.
* [[Arturo Toscanini]], who hated Stokowski, wrote him a letter in which he called him "fit for the asylum" ("Believe me, you are ready for mad-house or for jail… Hurry up!!!").<ref>Letter of 19 October 1941 in Harvey Sachs, ''The letters of Arturo Toscanini'', The University of Chicago Press, 2002, 2006, {{p.|382}}. {{ISBN|978-0-226-73340-1}}.</ref> Toscanini had just heard Stokowski perform [[César Franck]]'s Symphony. The letter was never sent, probably at the initiative of one of his sons.

==See also==
* [[List of Polish people|List of famous Poles]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* [[Abram Chasins]] (1979), ''Leopold Stokowski: A Profile''
* [[Oliver Daniel|Daniel, Oliver]] (1982), ''Stokowski: A Counterpoint of View''
* [[Herbert Kupferberg]] (1969), ''Those Fabulous Philadelphians''
* Preben Opperby (1982), ''Leopold Stokowski''
* Paul Robinson (1977), ''Stokowski: The Art of the Conductor''
* Rollin Smith (2005), ''Stokowski and the Organ''
* William Ander Smith (1990), ''The Mystery of Leopold Stokowski''
* Leopold Stokowski (1943), ''Music for All of Us''

==External links==
{{Commons category|Leopold Stokowski}}
{{Wikiquote}}
{{Archival records|title=Leopold Stokowski collection|location= Library of Congress|description_URL=http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.music/eadmus.mu020027}}
* [http://hdl.library.upenn.edu/1017/d/ead/upenn_rbml_MsColl381 Leopold Stokowski papers, 1916–1994], Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, [[University of Pennsylvania]] (Not available online)
* [http://hdl.handle.net/1903.1/4585 Leopold Stokowski Papers] {{--}} Special Collections in Performing Arts at the [[University of Maryland]]
* {{AllMusic|class=artist|id=q8753}}
* [http://stokowski.tripod.com/disco/lsdiscs.htm Leopold Stokowski Discography] from "The Leopold Stokowski Site"
* [https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/names/102771 Leopold Stokowski recordings] at the [[Discography of American Historical Recordings]].
* [http://www.classical.net/music/guide/society/lssa/disco.html Leopold Stokowski CD Discography] on Classical.net
* [[František Sláma (musician)]] [http://www.frantisekslama.com/en/conductors-and-a-few-more-recollections-besides Archive] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190914071051/http://www.frantisekslama.com/en/conductors-and-a-few-more-recollections-besides |date=14 September 2019 }}. More on the history of the Czech Philharmonic between the 1940s and the 1980s: ''Conductors''
* [http://www.stokowski.org Stokowski/Philadelphia Orchestra Discography and selected (RCA) Victor recordings, 1917–1940] on Stokowski.org
* [https://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-516-0k26970q9s ''Leopold Stokowski''], A Documentary produced in 1970 by [[National Educational Television|NET]], available online on [[American Archive of Public Broadcasting]]
* [https://www.wnyc.org/story/young-peoples-concerts-new-york-philharmonic/ Young People's Concerts: Leopold Stokowski Conducts (1949)] from The [[NYPR]] Archive Collections {{--}} One in this series of New York Philharmonic programs intended for young audiences featuring musical analysis interspersed with performance.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Stokowski, Leopold}}
[[Category:Leopold Stokowski| ]]
[[Category:1882 births]]
[[Category:1977 deaths]]
[[Category:Musicians from the City of Westminster]]
[[Category:EMI Classics and Virgin Classics artists]]
[[Category:English people of Polish descent]]
[[Category:English people of Irish descent]]
[[Category:English expatriates in the United States]]
[[Category:English conductors (music)]]
[[Category:British male conductors (music)]]
[[Category:English music arrangers]]
[[Category:Bach conductors]]
[[Category:Everest Records artists]]
[[Category:20th-century British conductors (music)]]
[[Category:Alumni of the Queen's College, Oxford]]
[[Category:Alumni of the Royal College of Music]]
[[Category:Honorary members of the Royal Philharmonic Society]]
[[Category:Pupils of Charles Villiers Stanford]]
[[Category:RCA Victor artists]]
[[Category:RCA Records artists]]
[[Category:Academy Honorary Award recipients]]
[[Category:Grammy Award winners]]
[[Category:Burials at East Finchley Cemetery]]
[[Category:Sony Classical Records artists]]
[[Category:20th-century male musicians]]
[[Category:Walt Disney Animation Studios people]]
[[Category:Music directors of the Philadelphia Orchestra]]
[[Category:Music directors of the New York Philharmonic]]
[[Category:Music directors of the Houston Symphony]]
[[Category:Music directors of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra]]