An original matte black-and-white headshot of the young conductor Sokoloff, shown holding a cigarette. He inscribes the photograph and offers a three-bar quotation of Schubert at the top.

Nicolai Sokoloff was the first music director of The Cleveland Orchestra. Throughout his fourteen-year tenure, which began in 1918, he grew the orchestra's roster, expanded the number of concerts in its season, led its tours throughout the United States, and conducted its first recording. After leaving Cleveland, Sokoloff directed the Federal Music Project, a program of Roosevelt's New Deal.