The Mendelssohn Scholarship () refers to two scholarships awarded in Germany and in the United Kingdom. Both commemorate the composer Felix Mendelssohn, and are awarded to promising young musicians to enable them to continue their development.
History Shortly after Mendelssohn's death in 1847, a group of his friends and admirers formed a committee in London to establish a scholarship to enable musicians to study at the Leipzig Conservatoire, which Mendelssohn had founded in 1843. Their fundraising included a performance of Mendelssohn's Elijah in 1848, featuring Jenny Lind. The link between London and Leipzig fell through, resulting in two Mendelssohn Scholarships.A Dictionary of Music and Musicians Sir George Grove, Vol. 2, London, 1900, New York Times, 7 November 1895
Mendelssohn Scholarship in Germany In Germany, the Mendelssohn Scholarship was established in the 1870s as two awards of 1500 Marks, one for composition and one for performance, for any student of a music school in Germany, and was funded by the Prussian state as part of an arrangement under which the Mendelssohn family donated the composer's manuscripts to the state. The first recipient was the composer, Engelbert Humperdinck, who used it to travel to Italy in 1879.
Funded by the Jewish Mendelssohn family, the award was discontinued by the Nazis in 1934. It was revived by the Ministry of Culture of the former East Germany in 1963, in the form of two annual prizes for composition and for performance. It is now awarded by the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation.
Recipients
As well as Humperdinck, famous recipients include the pianist Wilhelm Kempff and the composer Kurt Weill.
The following is an incomplete chronological list of recipients of the German Mendelssohn Scholarship.
1879 to 1934 1879 – Engelbert Humperdinck, Josef Kotek, Johann Kruse, Ernst SeyffardtUte Hansen, Felix-Mendelssohn-Bartholdy-Preis : Geschichte, Satzung, Wettbewerbsrichtlinien, Preisträger, Stipendiaten (Berlin: Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz, 2001) 1880 – Marie Soldat, Carl Wolf (composition) 1881 – Bernhard Stavenhagen, Andreas Moser, Johann Kruse, Ethel Smyth, Philipp Wolfrum, Adam Alex, Sophie Braun, Fritz Kaufmann (composition), Gotthold Knauth (piano), Alfred Sormann (piano) 1882 – Marie Soldat (violin), Martin Gebhardt (organ), Elsa Harriers (voice), Marie Harzer (voice), Karl Prill (violin), Arnold Mendelssohn (composition), Carl Schneider (composition)Ute Hansen, Felix-Mendelssohn-Bartholdy-Preis : Geschichte, Satzung, Wettbewerbsrichtlinien, Preisträger, Stipendiaten (Berlin: Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz, 2001). 1883 – Alex Adam, Albert Gorter (composition), Marie Harzer (voice), Hedwig Meyer (piano), Martha Schwieder (piano), Ernst Seyffardt (composition), Georg Stoltzenberg (composition), Elise Tannenberg (piano), Gabriele Wietrowetz (violin), Margarethe Witt (violin) 1884 – Carl Grothe (composition), Anna Haasters (piano), Solma Krause (piano), Max Puchat (composition), Carl Schneider (composition) 1885 – Gabriele Wietrowetz, Ida Beckmann (violin), Marie Mette (voice), Fanny Richter (piano), Georg Stoltzenberg (composition), Margarete Will (piano) 1886 – Charles Gregorowitsch (violin; also 1887, 1888), Hermann Kindler (cello), Geraldine Morgan (violin; also 1887), Bernhard Pfannstiel (organ; also 1887, 1888), Olga Radecki (piano) 1887 – Waldemar von Baußnern, Heinrich van Eyken, Peter Fassbänder, Felix Odenwald 1888 – Fanny Richter (piano), Percy Sherwood (piano; also 1889), Eduard Behm (also 1890, 1891), Mathieu Neumann, Ewald Strasser, Lucy Campbell (cello; also 1890) 1890 – Bram Eldering, Carl Markees (violin), Hermann von Roner (violin), Elisabeth Rouge (piano), August Schmidt (piano) E. van Dooren (also 1892), Martin Grabert, Friedrich Koch, Max Oppitz (clarinet), Carl Piening (cello) 1891 – Rudolf Lentz (violin; also 1892, 1893), Mina Rode (violin; also 1894), Betty Schwabe (violin), Felice Kirchdorffer (piano) 1892 – Helene Jordan (voice), Rosa Schindler (violin), Lina Mayer (piano) 1893 – Carl Thiel, Leo Schrattenholz, Louis Saar, Nellie Kühler (piano), Amelia Heineberg (piano), Olga von Lerdahely (violin), Kati Macdonald (piano), Lizzie Reynolds (piano) 1894 – Heinrich Bendler (piano), Dietrich Schäfer (piano), Toni Tholfus (piano), May C. Taylor (composition) 1895 – Elsie Stanley Hall, 1896 – Paul Juon, Walter Bachmann (piano), Juanita Brockmann (violin; also 1899, 1904) 1889 – Percy SherwoodEssay in Toccata Classics CD release available online as pdf 1897 – piano: Frieda Hodapp; violin: Eleonore Jackson, singing and violin: Ferdinand Schleicher 1898 – piano: Frieda Hodapp, Marie Bender, Heniot Levy, Wilhelm Backhaus; violin: Johannes Palaschko 1900 – Karl KlinglerKarl Klingler, entry at Deutsche Biographie 1901 – Elly Ney 1902 – Alfred Sittard 1902 – Ignatz Waghalter 1904 – Eugenie Stoltz (honorable mention) 1904 – Mae Doelling (1888–1965), piano 1905 – Eugenie Stoltz 1906 – Sara GurowitschThe Mendelssohn Prize, letter published in New York Times, 6 November 1910 1909 – Samuel Lieberson 1910 & 1913 – Ernst Toch 1912 – Licco Amar 1913 – Hans Bassermann, Mischa Levitzki, Max Trapp 1913 & 1918 – Erwin Schulhoff 1915 – 1917 – Wilhelm Kempff, Emil Peeters 1918 – Pancho Vladigerov 1919 – Kurt Weill 1920 – Pancho Vladigerov 1925 – Berthold Goldschmidt, Max Rostal 1926 – Ignace Strasfogel,Ignace Strasfogel, 84, Pianist and Conductor, obituary in New York Times, 10 February 1994 Ernst Pepping 1928 – Hans Humpert 1928 – Grete von Zieritz 1928 – Wilhelm Stross 1929 – Herbert Marx 1930 – Ludwig Hölscher 1931 – Kurt Fiebig, Roman Totenberg, Artur Balsam 1932 – Norbert von Hannenheim, Harald Genzmer 1933 – Werner Trenkner, Bernhard Heiden, Karlrobert Kreiten 1935 – Fritz Werner, Johannes Schneider-Marfels
Since 1963 1965 – Peter Herrmann 1966 – Walter Steffens 1974/75 – Gabriele Kupfernagel 1976/77 – Reinhard Wolschina 1978/80 – Walter Thomas Heyn 1981 – Bernd Franke 1985 – Rolf Fischer 1987 – Olaf Henzold 1988 – Steffen Schleiermacher 1988/89 – Caspar René Hirschfeld Carola Nasdala Michael Schönheit Michael Stöckigt Matthias Henneberg
Mendelssohn Scholarship in the United Kingdom
The funds raised at the 1848 concert were invested and allowed to accumulate until 1856, when Arthur Sullivan was elected as the first scholar. Since then it has been awarded from time to time, administered by the Mendelssohn Scholarship Foundation, which is linked to the Royal Academy of Music. The foundation was created by a trust deed in 1871. Its trustees include the composers Anthony Payne and Justin Connolly, and the principal of the Royal Academy of Music, Jonathan Freeman-Attwood; and its charitable objects are "For the education of musical students of both sexes in pursuance of the intentions of the founders".Mendelssohn Scholarship Foundation , at the Charity Commission's website
Recipients Recipients include the composers Frederick Corder, George Dyson,'On the Other Hand', Musical Opinion, April 1932, p.590 excerpt from article by Havergal Brian, retrieved from www.havergalbrian.org on 5 September 2010 Malcolm Arnold and Kenneth Leighton.
The following is an incomplete chronological list of recipients of the British Mendelssohn Scholarship.UK Mendelssohn Scholarship Foundation website, accessed 26 April 2015 1856 – Arthur Sullivan 1865 – Charles Swinnerton Heap 1871 – William Shakespeare 1873 – Eaton Faning 1875 – Frederick Corder 1879 – Maude Valérie White 1881 – Eugen d'Albert 1884 – Marie WurmA Dictionary of Music and Musicians Sir George Grove, Vol. 4, London, 1900 1890 – S P Waddington 1895 – Christopher Wilson 1899 – Percy Hilder Miles 1905 – George Dyson 1909 – Eric William Gritton 1912 – Joseph Alan Taffs 1916 – Philip Levi 1921 – Arthur Lawrence Sandford 1923 – Percy Purvis Turnbull 1927 – Godfrey Sampson 1929 – David Moule-Evans 1932 – Ivor Walsworth 1935 – Daniel Jones 1948 – Malcolm Arnold 1951 – Kenneth Leighton 1954 – Francis Burt 1956 – John Exton 1960 – David Blake 1962 – Richard Stoker 1964 – Patric Standford 1968 – Brian Ferneyhough 1969 – Jonathan Lloyd 1972 – Nicola LeFanu 1974 – Richard Blackford 1979 – Lionel Sainsbury 1985 – James HarleyJames Harley biography , on website of Minnesota State University Moorhead 1986 – Javier Alvarez 1988 – Martin Butler 1992 – Philip Cashian 1994 – Luminita Spinu 1997 – Richard Causton 2000 – Luke Bedford 2002 – Cheryl Frances-Hoad 2004 – Oliver Searle 2006 – Nadja Plein 2008 – Steven Daverson 2010 – Samuel Bordoli 2012 – Christian Mason 2014 – Arne Gieshoff 2016 – Nicholas Moroz 2018 – Nicholas Morrish 2020 – Angela Slater 2021 – Hugo Bell 2022 – Amelia Clarkson 2023 – Jasper Dommett 2024 – Mingdu Li 2025 - Po Hang Yuen (Special award to Holly Gowland)
References
External links of the UK Mendelssohn Scholarship Foundation of the German Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Hochschulwettbewerb at the Berlin University of the Arts