Editing Leopold Stokowski (section)

===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 in order to pursue a career as an orchestra conductor. Stokowski moved to Paris for additional study 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 Stokowski accompanied his bride to be, 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 politics 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}}