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Stokowski was the son of the English-born Polish cabinetmaker Kopernik Józef Boles³awowicz Stokowski and his Irish wife Annie Marion Stokowska, née Moore. There is some mystery surrounding his early life. For example, he spoke with a slightly Eastern European accent, though born and raised in London.[1] In addition, on occasion, he gave his birth year as 1887 instead of 1882, as in a letter to the Hugo Riemann Musiklexicon in 1950, which also gave his birthplace as Krakow, Poland. Nicolas Slonimsky, editor of Baker`s Biographical Dictionary of Musicians received a letter from a Finnish encyclopedia editor that said, "The Maestro himself told me that he was born in Pomerania, Germany, in 1889."

However, his birth certificate (signed by J. Claxton, registrar at the General Office, Somerset House, London, in the parish of All Souls, County of Middlesex) gives his birth on April 18, 1882, at 13 Upper Marylebone Street (now New Cavendish Street), in the Marylebone District of London. He was named after his Polish grandfather Leopold, who died in the county of Surrey on January 13, 1879, at the age of 49.[2] The "mystery" surrounding his origins and accent is clarified in Oliver Daniel`s 1000-page biography "Stokowski - A Counterpoint of View" (1982) wherein (Chapter 12) he reveals that Stokowski came under the influence of his first wife, the pianist Olga Samaroff, who, for professional and career reasons, "urged him to emphasize only the Polish part of his background" once he became domiciled in the USA.

Stokowski trained at the Royal College of Music, which he entered in 1896 at age thirteen, making him one of the youngest students to do so. In his later life in America he would perform six of the nine symphonies composed by fellow organ student Ralph Vaughan Williams. 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, 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 earned a Bachelor of Music degree in 1903.
In 1905, Stokowski began work in New York City as the organist and choir director of St. Bartholomew`s Church. He was very popular amongst the parishioners who included members of the Vanderbilt family, but eventually resigned the position in pursuit of a career of 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. That was the year of his official conducting debut in Paris with the Colonne Orchestra on May 12, 1909 when he accompanied his wife-to-be, the pianist Olga Samaroff, in Tchaikovsky`s 1st Piano Concerto. His London debut took place the following week on May 18 with the New Symphony Orchestra at Queen`s Hall.

Stokowski was a great success in Cincinnati, introducing the idea of "pop concerts" and conducting the United States premiere

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