The Mendelssohn Scholarship Foundation was established in 1848.

In the Trust Deed & Regulations dated 1st August 1871 it says:

'WHEREAS in the month of July 1848 it was proposed to found certain Scholarships in honour of the memory of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy to be called Mendelssohn Scholarships for the education of Musical Students of both sexes and a committee was formed to carry out the proposal and to raise the necessary Funds which Committee consisted of the following gentlemen that is to say:- Sir George Smart the said Sir Julius Benedict (then Mr Benedict) the said Sir William Sterndale Bennett (then Mr Bennett) the said John Hullah C.E.Horsley James William Davison Henry Fothergill Chorley Edward Buxton (Treasurer) and Charles Klingemann (Secretary)'.

A performance of Mendelssohn's Oratorio Elijah was given on 15 December 1848 at Exeter Hall London. The Committee managed the concert with the 'gratuitous assistance of Madame Lind Goldschmidt (then Mademoiselle Jenny Lind) and other distinguished artists and amateurs and under the conduct also gratuitous of the said Julius Benedict which resulted in a balance after payment of all expenses of £933 12s 7d'.

These funds were invested and by January 1865 amounted to £1,500.

In July 1856 the Committee elected Arthur Seymour Sullivan, then of Her Majesty's Chapel Royal, London, as the first scholar. He remained a scholar until 1860. Charles Swinnerton Heap of Birmingham was elected scholar in January 1865 and remained for about two and a half years. William Shakespeare of Croydon, Surrey, a student of the Royal Academy of Music, London, was elected in April 1871.

(A full list of scholars can be found on a separate page).

 

 

The Mendelssohn Scholarship Foundation (including The Boise Scholarship Foundation) is an independent body, Charity Registration number 313360, and is governed by Trustees.  

The Current Trustees (2018) are Richard Baker (Hon Treasurer), Justin Connolly, Leslie East, Jonathan Freeman-Attwood (Chair), Colin Lawson, Ben Parry, Anthony Payne, Robert Saxton, Malcolm Troup, Jonathan Vaughan, Havilland Willshire, Jean Shannon (Hon Secretary).