When Schoeck returned to Zurich in the autumn of 1904, he and Ralph shared an apartment at Seegartenstrasse 14, not far from the lake, and a short bike ride from the conservatory. This institution had been founded in 1876 and was still run by its first principal, Friedrich Hegar, the long-standing conductor of the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra, a violinist and composer, a friend of Brahms, and the dominant figure in the city's music life for over thirty years. He was also largely responsible for Zurich's reigning Brahmsian aesthetic. Only in the City Theater, under Lothar Kempter Senior, did the music of Wagner and the New Germans have the upper hand. It was with the elder Kempter that Othmar now took theory lessons at the conservatory. The teaching staff included many local lights: Hegar taught composition, Carl Attenhofer conducting, Johannes Luz organ, and Hans Häusermann singing. Schoeck also took violin lessons, though his teacher Alfons Grosser (the solo violist in the Tonhalle) found him so lazy that he seriously suggested he should return to painting instead. Schoeck's favorite teacher was Robert Freund for piano. A Hungarian by birth, he had studied with both Carl Tausig and Franz Liszt, had enjoyed a career as a concert pianist, and had been among the first members of staff of the Zurich Conservatory back in 1876. Freund's wide circle of friends and acquaintances included many of the leading artists of the day, from Johannes Brahms, Gottfried Keller, and Arnold Böcklin to Richard Strauss and Friedrich Nietzsche.