Date: January 18, 2013; 7:30-10:30pm; Tickets are $35

Location: Richardson Auditorium in Alexander Hall

For the sixth year in a row, the William H. Scheide Foundation will be holding its annual benefit concert. This year, the English Chamber Orchestra will be putting on “Forever Young,” with all proceeds to support the Community Park Pool. The concert will take place on the 99^th birthday of Scheide.

Born on January 6, 1914, William H. Scheide is a life-long musician and scholar. Fluent in German and able to read Latin, he grew up in an environment to nourish his enjoyment of music. His father played the piano and his mother who was a singer. Scheide began learning to play the piano at age 6, and would eventually go on to become an accomplished pianist and organist. He graduated from Princeton University in 1936 and received his Master of Arts in musicology from Columbia University in 1940. Scheide’s grandfather, William Taylor Scheide, amassed a fortune from Pennsylvania’s oil production as a partner with John D. Rockefeller.

Scheide is well known in music circles as a Bach scholar. The thesis topic for his Master’s studied the impact and evolution of Bach’s music in the first century following his death. His particular passion was for the arias music in Bach’s cantatas, which he felt were unduly neglected by the public despite being some of Bach’s best work. In 1946, Scheide founded the Bach Aria Group to draw attention to this lesser known collection of Bach’s works, where he served as director of the organization. The Bach Aria Group performed and recorded many of Bach’s most famous pieces, seeking to expose the composer’s cantatas to a new generation of Bach aficionados.

Scheide is also known for his contributions to the rare book and manuscript collection at Princeton University. Building on a collection begun by his grandfather, William T. Scheide, the library was eventually moved to the Firestone Library at Princeton University, where it became part of the university’s Department of Rare Books and Special Collections. The Scheide Library is known for being one of the most comprehensive collections in the Western Hemisphere. Some of the items in it include a 1493 letter from Christopher Columbus to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain, detailing his discovery of America, and a first printing of Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night.”

The Scheide Library drew considerable attention in 2002 when it became the only collection in the Western Hemisphere to include all of the first printed Bibles, including the Mentelin Bible, the 35-line Bible, the 1462 Bible, and the Gutenberg Bible. The ownership of all four Bibles simultaneously had not occurred in more than 150 years before Scheide purchased the Mentelin Bible in 2002 for an undisclosed amount, though it was reportedly in the seven figures. His ownership of the Mentelin Bible made him one of only three individuals who have ever owned all four Bibles in the same collection; the other men were King George III of England and the second Earl Spencer. While the collection is private, it is available to scholars. The library serves as an unparalleled resource for musicologists, scholars, and historians.

Scheide is also known for his philanthropy work, not only with the Princeton University, but with other groups, including Planned Parenthood, various environmental groups, and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

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