After meeting Hughes in New York, conductor and violinist Nikolai Sokoloff agreed to visit Cleveland to survey the level of music education in local public schools.  Despite roadblocks caused by World War I and an outbreak of Influenza, Sokoloff, Hughes, music critic Archie Bell, and Father John Powers of St. Ann’s Parish in Cleveland Heights signed a contract for a concert by the newly-formed Cleveland Symphony Orchestra to be performed on December 11, 1918.  Over the next fifteen seasons, Hughes worked as the Orchestra’s general manager.