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János Scholz Cello Music Collection
| Born December 20, 1903
in Sopron, Hungary, János Scholz was a fifth-generation violoncellist in
a musical family. He began his study of the cello as a child, but received his
first degree in agronomy from the Royal Hungarian College of Agriculture in order
to please his mother. Scholz then resumed his musical studies and obtained his
diploma from the Royal Hungarian Academy of Music in Budapest, where one of his
teachers was Ernst von Dohnanyi. After graduating from the Academy, Scholz became
first cellist of the Budapest Symphony Orchestra. He later played with the Budapest
Opera and various chamber music groups, and gave solo recitals in Hungary, Austria,
Italy, France and England. In 1932, he joined the Roth Quartet, which toured widely.
When the group arrived in the United States in 1933, the rise of Fascism in Europe
led its members to obtain U.S. citizenship, and Scholz took up residence in Manhattan.
According to Scholz, he arrived in this country with nothing but "a suitcase and
a cello". Scholz was also an accomplished viola da gamba performer and was the first to record the Bach Gamba Sonatas (Columbia 1938). His notable collection of viola da gamba and cello bows now belongs to the Smithsonian Institution. In addition to performing, Scholz was also a teacher. He trained Yo Yo Ma for years before the young cellist went on to Julliard. Scholz was an avid collector and had dual interests in music and art. He was professor of Art History at Columbia University and New York University; his field was the development of Italian Draughtmanship and Connoisseurship. Scholz assembled a large and comprehensive collection of Italian Master drawings, which he gave to the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York in 1973. Besides editing texts for gamba music of Handel and Marcello and violoncello literature of the 18th century, Scholz was also an iconography specialist for instrument and musical subjects in painting. Scholz's collection of over 700 music scores is now available online. Use either the Scholz Collection Contents link to the left or search the online database. The University of North Carolina at Greensboro conferred an honorary doctorate of Humane Letters on János Scholz at the commencement exercises of 1981. |
Requests for information about the collections should be directed to: Dr. William K. Finley, Special Collections & Rare Books Division Head (336) 334-5246. E-mail: wkfinley@uncg.edu |