Thomas was succeeded in the conductorship by Frederick A. Stock, who still holds the post. We have had occasion to point out before that Thomas was very fortunate in his successors. In Chicago, as elsewhere, his conservatism held him more or less closely to the classics and his interpretations of these established a high and dignified standard which was of incalculable value in educating the public taste. Accepting this standard as his own, Mr. Stock ventured gradually into new paths and, while still maintaining the classic tradition, he led his public into greater intimacy with the moderns. César Franck, d'Indy, Debussy, Chausson, Glazounoff, Gretchaninoff, Balakireff, Borodine, Sinigaglia, Max Reger, Richard Strauss, Gustav Mahler have all figured on his programs, together with Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms, with Haydn and Mozart, with Schubert, Schumann and Mendelssohn, with Wagner, Liszt, and Tschaikowsky. Like the other big American orchestras, the Theodore Thomas organization makes an annual tour, bringing to the smaller cities their meed of musical entertainment and to the larger ones an opportunity of comparing notes. In spite of the great strides made by Chicago in musical culture during recent years, its importance in the musical history of the Middle West is second to that of Cincinnati. From the beginning the elements composing the citizenship of the latter city were such as to introduce musical activity at a very early stage. The first _Sängerfest_ in the West was held at the old Armory Hall there about 1842, and in 1878 the Cincinnati College of Music, equipped to teach all branches, was founded by Miss Dora Nelson. The Cincinnati College of Music, which has since become the College of Music of Cincinnati, became the vibrant centre of musical growth in the Middle West. It was never without its own orchestra, string quartet, chorus and school of opera and expression. Through its faculty concerts, lectures, and other forms of educational entertainments the people of Cincinnati became interested and discriminating auditors. Theodore Thomas was the first musical director of this school, and it was from Cincinnati that he first exercised the influence which has since resulted in such remarkable advance in all musical centres of the Middle West. The first May Music Festival to be given in America was organized and performed under his direction in 1873. Five years later, during which time the Cincinnati Festival had become an established institution, the Springer Music Hall was erected for the future use of the May Festival Association.