PORTLAND (AP) – Toshiyuki Shimada wanted something exciting to do when he leaves his job as conductor of the Portland Symphony Orchestra. He thinks he has found it in the role of a real-life Indiana Jones searching for musical treasures.

A licensing deal gives the mild-mannered maestro and newly minted Yale University professor access to the Roman Catholic Church’s Vatican Library, allowing him to produce musical CDs based on its treasure trove of manuscripts and prints.

Shimada, who’s 53, hopes to bring to light some music tucked away in the library collections and never heard during modern times.

“We know that there’s a lot of music that has not seen the daylight,” said Shimada, his eyes lighting up at the musical possibilities. “There’s a certain amount of mysteriousness. It’s a lot like a treasure hunt.”

Shimada, who is known to friends as Toshi, is musical director and chief creative officer of Trinity Music Partners, which recently completed negotiations to reproduce musical works contained within the Vatican Library. The Portland-based company plans to produce a series of compact discs based on music from the collections.

Unlike Indiana Jones, Shimada will not be entering dark, dusty catacombs carrying a torch. The collections are held in a research library, the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, which is located next to the Sistine Chapel.

The library, which he will visit Monday, contains works ranging from Gregorian chants to symphonic music to folk music to African drumming.

Some of the manuscripts, like those of Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, were created for Capella Giulia, the choir of the Basilica of St. Peter, and the choir in the Sistine, the chapel of the popes. Others are part of private collections donated to the library.

Researchers from University of Heidelberg spent more than six years cataloging the collection of the choir of the Sistine Chapel, which alone contains 4,500 works, said Thomas Schmidt-Beste, a senior research fellow at the university.

Trinity would be hard pressed to find manuscripts that have not been described or at least mentioned in scholarly literature. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t musical treasures that are, for practical purposes, hidden from the public. “There are a number of pieces from the late 15th century and early 16th century that are what I would consider to be masterpieces but have never been publicly performed or recorded, as far as I can ascertain,” Schmidt-Beste said.

Richard Sherr, a musicologist at Smith College in Northampton, Mass., agrees that there’s a wealth of music that was performed years ago and tucked away. “I’m sure there are things there that are nice pieces of music that have never been heard,” he said. “I’m positive of that.”

Music and art always have been instrumental to the Roman Catholic Church, particularly in the days when few could read. Some of the 500-year-old library’s music is believed to date back to the earliest days of Christianity, and even before.

The five-year agreement allows Trinity Music Partners to produce classical CDs carrying the seal from the “Vatican Library Collection.”

Trinity envisions producing a series of compact discs akin to the Time-Life series in which subscribers receive monthly or quarterly installments. These could include music from different periods – classical, baroque, romantic, modern – or music from the era of each of the popes, including Pope John Paul II, Shimada said.

One of Shimada’s first projects will focus on next year’s 250th anniversary of the birth of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. In 1770 the Austrian child prodigy performed for Pope Clement XIV and was rewarded with a papal knighthood.

Shimada also plans musical CDs that will be tied to liturgical events. The first will be “Christmas at the Vatican.”

For Shimada, the possibilities are endless. “It’s like riding a canoe in the Pacific Ocean and trying to catch fish,” he said.

It’s potentially big business. If just 1 percent of the world’s 1 billion Catholics bought one CD for $15, that would amount to $1.5 billion in revenues, said Joe McNulty, a Portland accountant who brought together investors and helped to arrange the deal.

No one expects to make anywhere near that much money, but the deal could be lucrative. Trinity Musical Partners will return a portion of the proceeds to the Vatican Library.

McNulty sees the value of archived music. In partnership with Fleetwood Mac’s Mick Fleetwood, a personal friend, he was part of a group, Bee Load Ltd., which claims to have obtained a licensing agreement to release CDs culled from BBC archival tapes.

His plans to release BBC recordings of vintage rock n’ roll from the Beatles, the Who and Led Zeppelin, however, are currently mired in a lawsuit.

Shimada, who is Roman Catholic, had to get a letter of approval from the local bishop before the deal could move forward. Meanwhile, McNulty worked with lawyers for licensing agents in California, who worked with representatives from the Vatican Library. It took 11/2 years to complete the deal.

Trinity Musical Partners has a contract with 1451 International and Second Renaissance in California, which have a licensing agreement with the Vatican, according to the Rev. Laurence Spiteri of the Vatican Library’s legal division.

Shimada, who already has 15 compact discs under his belt with labels including the Vienna Modern Masters, views the project as an excellent adventure as he leaves the Portland Symphony Orchestra after two decades. Effective July 1, he also will be serving as conductor of the Yale Symphony, and he plans to take the group on tour.

“I always wanted to do something more spectacular. When this came along, this was something I’ve been looking for,” Shimada said.