Frank Valentine Van der Stucken was an American composer and conductor, and founder of theCincinnati Symphony in 1895. Van der Stucken was born in Fredericksburg, Texas, to Frank and Sophie Van der Stucken, née Schönewolf. He lived in Europe from 1866 to 1884. He studied at the Conservatory of Music at Antwerp under Peter Benoit from 1875 to 1879, and at Leipzig from 1879 to 1881. He was kapellmeister of the Stadt Theater, Breslau, Germany, in 1882, later giving concerts of his own compositions, in Weimar and elsewhere in Germany, under the patronage of Liszt. He returned to the United States in 1884, and became the leader of the Arion society of New York, conducting novelty concerts in Steinway hall and symphonic concerts in Chickering hall. Van der Stucken gave a series of American concerts at the Paris exposition of 1889, made a concert tour in Europe with the Arion Society in 1892, and after 1895 conducted the symphony concerts in Cincinnati, in which city he was the dean of the college of music.