Princeton-based musician and arts patron Bill Scheide’s marks his 100th birthday in what has become an area tradition: a full concert featuring his favorite composer, a European orchestra, and the voices from one of the most prestigious vocal schools in the world.
The sold-out event is set for Saturday, January 25, 7:30 p.m., Richardson Auditorium, Alexander Hall, Princeton University.
The scheduling of Beethoven’s monumental 9th Symphony, “Ode to Joy,” gives the evening its theme and serves as a fitting celebration of life and a tribute to Scheide’s great joy: music. The evening also serves as a benefit concert for Westminster Choir College which through the Westminster Symphonic Choir gives voice to the poetry of Beethoven last symphony.
Former Princeton University Orchestra music director and noted international guest conductor Mark Laycock returns to lead the Vienna Orchestra in the program of four works that reflect Scheide’s interests.
Bach’s “Gloria sei dir gesungen” from Cantata 140 — a piece that reflects Scheide’s 1946 founding and nearly 40 directing of the Bach Area Group — opens the event. It is followed by Brahms’ “Academic Festival Overture,” a allusion to Scheide’s Princeton University connections and academic career, and a presentation of Scheide’s own composition “Prelude for Piano for Four Hands,” performed by guest pianists Mariam Nazarian and Andrew Sun.
The concert concludes with the rousing “Ode,” performed by the Westminster Symphonic Choir and featuring the guest soloists soprano Ah Young Hon, mezzo-soprano Leah Wool, tenor William Burden, and bass-baritone Mark S. Doss.
For more information on the event or to support Westminster Choir College, call 609-258-9220.
