An honor worthy of the man was recently bestowed upon Mr. Sol Schoenbach of Philadelphia. Practically every bassoonist in the world has either heard his name, listened to his bassoon tone through recordings or had the pleasure of meeting this outstanding former solo bassoonist of the Philadelphia Orchestra, unique and progressive teacher and, since 1957, executive director of the Settlement Music School in Philadelphia.
On October 17, 1972, at noon, in the ballroom of the Warwick Hotel, a special luncheon and concert took place. It was designed by the Settlement Music School's Scholarship Committee to benefit the Sol Schoenbach Scholarship Fund. An amount of $43,000 was raised to be invested in Israel bonds, the interest from which will be used to provide 14 scholarships for students at the school in perpetuity.
The Israel Philharmonic had given a concert in Philadelphia's famed Academy of Music the day before, with Zubin Mehta conducting and with piano soloist Daniel Barenboim. For Mr. Schoenbach's honorary luncheon, Daniel Barenboim performed with members of the Israel Woodwind Quintet two movements of Mozart's Quintet for Piano and Winds, K. 452. The quintet is comprised of the Israel Philharmonic first desk woodwinds, Uri Shoham, flute; Eliahu Thorner, oboe; Richard Lesser, clarinet; Meir Rimon, horn; and Mordechai Rechtman, bassoon. Two members of this group had studied music in Philadelphia: Mr. Lesser, who had been a student of Anthony Gigliotti, first clarinet of the Philadelphia Orchestra and Mordechai Rechtman who is a former student of Schoenbach.
Honorary Chairman of the event included old colleagues and friends of Sol Schoenbach: Leopold Stokowski, Dr. Eugene Ormandy, Leonard Bernstein, Zubin Mehta, Max Rudolf, Andre Kostelanetz, Daniel Barenboim, Rudolf Serkin, Benny Goodman, Isaac Stern, Jan Peerce, and Samuel R. Rosenbaum, Esq.
It is wonderful to see the possibility, in this time of great unrest and haste in the world, of a little time taken to honor the contribution of such a unique artist and man, Sol Schoenbach.