Johann Strauss Foundation Scholarships in Music
For students enrolled and continuing in, or graduating from the Bachelor of Music or the Master of Music Program in the School of Music at the University of Victoria. These Scholarships, and the supplemental Johann Strauss Foundation - Joseph and Melitta Kandler Scholarships, are to facilitate active participation in programs in Austria for the advanced study of music.
JOHANN STRAUSS FOUNDATION
The Johann Strauss Foundation of British Columbia was established in 1985 by Joseph and Melitta Kandler, and other friends of the music of Vienna to commemorate the great Viennese composer, Johann Strauss II, and to recognize the universal appeal of his music. The late Baroness Maria von Trapp, well known all over the world as the heroine of “The Sound of Music”, was the Foundation’s first Honorary Patron until her death in 1987.
The principal aim of the Johann Strauss Foundation is to support musical education in British Columbia and particularly to encourage and support by way of scholarship young musicians residing in British Columbia who wish to further their advanced musical studies in the cultural environment of Austria. The Johann Strauss Tea Dance, and later the Vienna Ball, annual gala fund-raising events held in Victoria until 2001, combined this charitable purpose with the enjoyment of music and dance in a typical Viennese atmosphere of gaiety and love of life.
Operated from Salt Spring Island, the Johann Strauss Foundation was registered in 1985 as a Canadian charitable organization. Until its dissolution, Scholarships were being funded entirely by contributions from sponsors and donors. The Foundation was dissolved in 2005, after turning over its remaining net assets, together with continuing support from specific donors, to the School of Music of the University of Victoria, and the School of Music of the University of British Columbia, for financing of the continuation of the Scholarships program in perpetuity.