Music, Philanthropy and Community Unite Under the Direction of Princeton's Scheides

PRINCETON, NJ, January 16, 2011 (Press-News.org) Musician, philanthropist and humanitarian William H. Scheide will celebrate his 97th birthday this month by sponsoring "Sound Medicine," an All-Mozart Concert to Benefit Princeton Healthcare System's Design for Healing Campaign. The concert, performed by the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, will be held on Thursday, January 27, 2011 at Princeton University's Richardson Auditorium in Alexander Hall.

In honor of this special occasion, Maestro Mark Laycock will return to Princeton to conduct the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, a leading international ensemble with an outstanding reputation focusing on the Viennese masters and their disciples. The Zurich Chamber Orchestra also collaborates with leading musicians in widely varied genres (jazz, folk, and popular music) and rediscovers forgotten composers to complement a broad repertoire that ranges from baroque to classical and from romantic to contemporary.

Maestro Laycock, Bill Scheide's longtime friend and preferred conductor, previously directed the Princeton Symphony Orchestra for more than 20 years. He has appeared with the orchestras of London, Paris, Vienna, Lucerne, Prague, Moscow, Kiev, Montreal, Mexico City, Seoul and Taipei, and is currently based in Berlin, Germany. The event also features Dimitri Ashkenazy, clarinet and soprano Jihye Son.

"Sound Medicine" will benefit the Princeton HealthCare System (PHCS) fundraising campaign, Design for Healing: The Campaign for the New University Medical Center of Princeton at Plainsboro. Bill and Judith Scheide have long been supporters of the Princeton Healthcare System Foundation, having established the Fannie and James A. Floyd Clinic Endowment Fund in 2008 to provide healthcare for the uninsured and the underinsured through the Outpatient Clinic at the University Medical Center at Princeton.

For more than 90 years, PHCS has cared for the sick, provided healthcare education to the community, saved lives, and ushered new ones into the world. To ensure continued quality care, PHCS has embarked on a campaign to build a replacement hospital. Design for Healing seeks to raise support for the new state-of-the-art facility, featuring single patient rooms, which will open in 2012 and help PHCS recruit and retain the finest medical staff.

Bill Scheide's annual birthday concerts have become a highlight on the Princeton community calendar, along with the other benefit concerts he and his wife sponsor throughout the year. Charitable organizations that have benefited from the Scheide concert series in the past include the Princeton Arts Council, Centurion Ministries, Isles, and the Princeton University Preparatory Program

For more information about the concert, visit http://www.scheideconcerts.com.