The China Post - Arts & Leisure, Monday, July 16, 2001

Austrian scholar’s research on Steyr’s music history finds a trail to Taiwan.
By Nancy T. Lu - The China Post

... The name of the late Robert Scholz has served as a special bridge linking Austria and Taiwan. Special credit for unearthing this possibility must go Martin L. Fiala, an Austrian music scholar and researcher who first discovered the Austrian connection with Taiwan in Steyr.
"I have known about the Scholz brothers, Heinz and Robert Scholz, since two years ago", he said. "I have come across them in the course of my historical research on '800 Years of Music in the City of Steyr'. I started working on this project in 1995."
The music teacher, conductor and composer intends to launch his book and a CD-ROM on the subject as part of his doctoral thesis at the University of Vienna this summer.
Fiala, 37, stumbled by chance upon Heinz and Robert Scholz while going over the concert programs in different archives in Steyr. In fact, the name he found first belonged to Johanna Mayr, the mother of the Scholz brothers.
"Composer Anton Bruckner mentioned her as 'my prime donna' because of her wonderful singing", pointed out Fiala. "I decided to dig and search further until I found the family of Mayr and Scholz."
Fiala managed to trace the Scholz family to Salzburg, Innsbruck and Graz. He was able to gain access to a lot of private materials. He even got hold of Johanna Mayr’s diary. She described her relationship with Bruckner. The Scholz memorabilia also included a letter from Bruckner to Johanna Mayr and her sister.
"I can describe the history of the Scholz family from 1750 until the present time", said Fiala.
According to Fiala, when the Scholz brothers - who studied at the Mozarteum in Salzburg - were younger, they collaborated with brilliant conductors like Herbert von Karajan, Clemens Krauss, Bruno Walter, Arturo Toscanini and Dmitri Mitropoulos.
Luen Liang, Fiala’s Taipei-born friend in Austria, helped him trace Scholz to his adopted homeland of Taiwan in his last 23 years. Fiala found Emane Wu-Scholz with his partner’s help, too. He translated a lot of Chinese materials into German for the researcher when he was preparing the "Taiwan in Steyr" program of activities... (S. 10).