(bright music) - [Announcer] This is a production of SDPD.

(upbeat marching band music) - [Narrator] On August 26th of 2023, the National Music Museum in Vermillion, South Dakota opened its first floor galleries after having been closed for nearly five years of renovations.

A crescendo of anticipation filled the air as the National Music Museum emerged anew.

Eager museum goers gathered, their excitement palpable, awaiting the momentous reopening.

As the ribbon fell and the doors swung open, a wave of joy washed over the crowd, a celebration of heritage, innovation, and the enduring power of music.

But this moment is not just about new beginnings, it's a continuation of a legacy, a legacy that spans centuries and continents, and with humble beginnings.

(upbeat marching band music continues) (playful piano music) Born into a musical family on a southern Minnesota farm in 1904, Arne B. Larson developed a passion for all things music.

He learned how to play the clarinet by the age of five.

In the 1920s, Arne began collecting musical instruments and was still collecting when he moved to South Dakota in 1943 to become the band and orchestra director at Brookings High School.

At that time, several rooms in the family home were filled to the brim with musical instruments.

In 1966, Arne moved to Vermillion and took the position of Professor of Music at the University of South Dakota.

With him came his collection of around 2,500 instruments.

Arne was provided space in the Carnegie Library building to house much of his collection, which would also be used for educational opportunities.

In 1973, the Shrine to Music Museum was born, and Arne's son, André, was appointed director of the museum.

10 years later, the museum took over the entire Carnegie Building with plans for new galleries, a concert hall, and basement storage to accommodate the ever-growing collection.

In the decades that followed, the museum became internationally known for its cultural and historical significance, as well as a place to study musical instruments and their origins.

The transformation of the museum's name to the National Music Museum in 2002 reflects its dedication to preserving and showcasing musical instruments and artifacts of historical significance.

A continued expansion of its collection demonstrates the museum's commitment to enriching its offerings and providing visitors with a comprehensive representation of the world's musical heritage.

- Well, our collection has 15,000 musical instruments, so it's the largest collection in the country, and that really only conveys part of the story, because we have many supporting collections.

We have archives.

We have a library of 6,000 volumes.

We have 25,000 periodicals.

We have costumes.

We have a recording collection.

We have actual music, sheet music, band music, et cetera.

And so, the collection in total is much, much larger than 15,000 items.

(bright cello music) - [Narrator] Many of those items in the museum's collection are some of the rarest in the world.

- The instrument behind me is known as the King Amati Cello.

It was made by Andrea Amati in Cremona at some point in the mid 1500s.

He was the earliest documented violin maker in the city of Cremona.

Cremona was one of two major centers for violin making in Italy in the 16th century.

And Andrea Amati is the pioneer of a particular technique of making that became predominant among fine violin makers, and that is building the instruments around an internal mold.

And what that allows you to do is it allows you to have very consistent models of instruments, so the geometry is close from one instrument to the next, and the sizes are regularized, but allowing very consistent production, very high quality.

It's known as the King, because it has painting on it associated with King Charles IX, who ruled in the 1560s and into the early 1570s.

And this central medallion is associated with the court of Charles IX.

It's his armorial, and his motto was "Piety and Justice."

So this is the figure of Justice with her scales and her sword.

and then also these columns were part of the French regalia.

We think the instrument may actually predate this painting, and it may have been repurposed, because there are certain features of it stylistically that match better with earlier instruments painted for the French court.

- The museum is in partnership with the university, and the university provides us with some storage on campus, but those spaces were really never intended to be long-term museum storage.

And so, we're really bursting at the seams here in this lovely Carnegie Building.

Most of staff are in the basement, and some of our offices are actually in storage.

- [Narrator] The museum, once again, was in need of expansion.

(bright orchestral music) In a unique partnership between the National Music Museum, the University of South Dakota, the City of Vermillion, and the Vermillion Area Chamber and Development Company, planning began to do just that.

It was decided the existing Carnegie building would be completely renovated with new galleries and displays, and a 16,000 square foot edition would also be added on.

But a place needed to be found to store the existing collection during this construction period.

It was also decided that a 23,000 square foot preservation and research facility would be constructed to permanently house the museum's collections.

On September 21st, 2018, the work began.

- In 1973, Arne Larson started a collection in Vermillion, and at that point in time, Arne called it the Shrine to Music.

The reason being is the Shrine of Democracy was on the west side of the state, and the Shrine to Music would anchor the other side of the state, all right?

And the purpose was to collect and display instruments and to show their heritage and what they meant to us, and to have students study them, and to have the opportunity for people to learn more about these instruments.

Well, that museum grew, André took over, became the National Music Museum.

And today, that dream, that Shrine to Music is the foremost collection of musical instruments in the world.

(crowd clapping) As a board, we made a decision to move together, to move ahead in partnership with USD on a $9 million addition to the Music Museum, which is critical to allow us to do the work and the displays and the preservation.

But a funny thing happened on the way to adding the addition, you gotta have some place of store instruments.

So hence today, we're at the opportunity where we break ground on an awesome partnership between the museum, the university, and the Vermillion Chamber and Development Corporation.

It wouldn't have happened without you guys in that group or the university or the great board members staff of the Music Museum.

(bright orchestral music) - [Announcer] Well done, well done!

- And so, these new facilities will allow us to store the collection in a way that allows us to use it.

We really are looking forward to having rotating exhibits, and that's been a challenge, because right now, if we take something off of exhibit, we don't really have anywhere to put it.

(bright xylophone music) - [Narrator] In October of 2018, the Carnegie Building was closed to the public in order to start the moving process.

In the summer of 2019, the Center for Preservation and Research Facility was completed.

Now the work of transferring the entirety of the museum's collections and archives was in full swing.

For many of the instruments, special packaging had to be custom created to ensure safe and secure long-term storage.

- So this one is from Japan from 1875.

We always start with a foam that can directly touch the instrument, and we try to shape it around, so it just rests on top of that in the box.

Then, I'm at the process now where I'm starting to make these little holder sections.

I pull holes through them, and then we'll attach strings to go across to secure the instrument into the box.

All of this material that we use is specifically designed so that it can touch the instruments without causing any damage, no matter how many years it's in the box.

With the stringed instruments as well.

We wanna make sure with their necks that those are especially supported, so you can see these also have extra cushioning around the neck section.

I've already tested once to see if it would fit.

Now I'm gonna try, now that we've got it all glued down, see exactly how well he fits in here.

(chimes ringing) You can hear he has internal metal chimes, so that's what that sound is.

Of course also, when tying, we have to be careful not to push down on the instruments, or any time we put instruments into these boxes, we wanna be very gentle, so we don't cause any cracking or denting of the instruments.

Okay, so that would be basically how we secure the instruments.

- Well, we were contracted by the museum to evaluate and disassemble four instruments and pack and crate them for storage.

So our job is just that, take them apart, document damage, make recommendations for future repairs or restorations, and make sure they're in adequate storage.

The first thing we would do is we would take out all the pipes.

We call it de-piping the organ.

And so, we're taking out all of the pipes, rank by rank and counting them, making sure they're all here, and evaluating the condition, if they should be damaged or not, and recommending if they should be repaired, and then packing them away.

After that, then usually you go into case work where you would take off, well, take the upper part of the case off and then start working on the actions, whether it's a keyboard action, whether roller boards, or this happens to be what's called a sticker action.

It's a very direct action, the link from the keyboard right down to the windchest, it's all right there in front of you.

And we have to make decisions on how far do we want to take it apart for the safest storage.

From there, it's design crates and crate it up and move it out.

(playful music) I think preserving history is very important, especially historical musical instruments like this, because we have examples that we can go back to and look at to build new instruments.

And the fact that we've been entrusted to do it I think is really great.

My whole family, for years and years, has had an interest in history and historical instruments.

Our father collected and restored antique phonographs and music boxes.

So, even though it wasn't a pipe organ and such, even our father was interested in musical instruments to a certain extent.

For me, I guess it's just kind of fun to be able to say that I worked on something that predates me.

And on the other hand, what I build on a daily basis, I expect to outlast me.

And I think that's very important that we keep buildings and institutions like this together.

- One of the things that we are doing in preparation for the move of our collection is the documentation of the instruments, both the photography of the instruments, and also a description of their current condition.

This accomplishes a couple of things.

It allows us, first of all, to share our collection while we're closed to the public, but more importantly, it really documents the condition of the instruments before the move, so that once we move the instruments, if there's any question about if there was a scratch or a ding or something like that, we know the condition of the instruments before they were moved.

(bright orchestral music) - [Narrator] Although most of the museum's collections would be packed away and put into storage during the renovations, several instruments would not be crated up.

In an effort to keep the instruments and the National Music Museum in the public's eye, many items were loaned out and put on display in other museums around the country and around the world.

One such museum is the Museum of the Violin in Cremona, Italy, the birthplace of the King Amati Cello.

- We are sending eight instruments and one bow to Cremona.

All of the instruments were made in Cremona in various neighborhoods, oftentimes quite close to where they'll be exhibited.

(bright orchestral music) The museum itself focuses on the history of violin making in the area.

It has numerous historic instruments.

It has things relating to how violins are made.

They have a workshop there where makers from the town come in and volunteer their time to sit and actually make instruments in front of the guests.

The earliest instrument that we're sending over is a Brothers Amati Violin made a round 1595 for King Henry IV of France.

And the next oldest is a very special violino piccolo, or small-sized violin, made by Hieronymous Amati, one of the brothers in 1613, after his older brother had died.

we're also sending over a violin by one of the most celebrated makers, Nicolo Amati, who really moved the model of the violin forward.

That instrument is an early example made in 1628.

We're sending over two plucked instruments by Antonio Stradivari, a mandolin, and a guitar.

There are around five surviving Stradivari guitars, but only two mandolins.

We're also sending a Stradivari violin bow as well, which is a very rare object.

As we get further into the 18th century, we have this Nicola Bergonzi viola, and this is really a beautiful example in fine condition.

And then, we've got a child's instrument, made by Lorenzo Storioni, who is another late Cremonese maker.

- [Narrator] By the fall of 2019, the transfer of all the instruments and collections to the Center for Preservation and Research facility was completed.

- The process that you have to go through to move this many items, even moving, we moved several thousand items out of the Carnegie Building in here into the Center for Preservation and Research over the course of a month.

It was a all-hands-on-deck, full staff operation.

If people weren't moving, they were contributing in other ways by holding the fort down.

The most challenging part of the move was just getting some of our truly enormous, truly heavy items out of Carnegie and over here to the Preservation Center in a safe way, because we were moving some objects that weighed well in excess of 1,000 pounds.

The tremendous job our staff did organizing the actual move itself, we completed it a couple weeks ahead of schedule, and most importantly, we didn't damage any objects, and we didn't damage any people.

The purpose of the Center for Preservation and Research is to provide storage and conservation space for our collections.

It will allow our collections to live and exist in a proper environmentally-controlled environment.

We also have space out here for things like photography studios, conservation area, workshop area, and it really sets the museum up where the collections can continue to grow and thrive for decades to come.

The vast majority of our items will be here even after the museum's finished, because we have a growing collection of 15,000 plus items, and that does not include books in our library, or materials in our archives, vast collections of sheet music and letters and all of those things for a museum to get these kinds of facilities that really give us the opportunity to grow for the next 40 or 50 years and house the collections in the best possible environments.

We're just thrilled.

This does not happen every day at every institution.

It's special.

- [Narrator] Now that all the moving was completed, the construction work on the Carnegie Building and the expansion could begin.

(upbeat music) (saxophone solo) (upbeat music continues) - So in the existing building, a lot of the galleries will remain the same.

There's some cosmetic touch-ups that happened as well, but as far as a lot of the walls, there's a lot of patching, electrical rough-ins, stuff like that will all become new, new light fixtures.

There are a few new openings that we had to cut in through the existing walls to create some bigger spaces, but the general layout of the existing building generally will stay the same.

One unique feature between the buildings is a one-inch expansion between the new and the old.

The new building does not touch the old building at all.

There's some expansion joints that we have throughout the building, as well as on the roof that kind of tie 'em together, but no structure actually will tie the two buildings together.

(bright music) - [Narrator] On September 24th, 2021, the Lillibridge Wing addition was opened, and the ribbon cutting ushered in a new era for the National Music Museum.

(crowd clapping) - It's my honor to be here to represent the city on this exciting occasion.

The National Music Museum is truly a treasure in our community, and we are blessed to have it.

We absolutely do not take it for granted.

Growing up in Vermillion, the then Shrine Music Museum was always a special place to me, from running around the edge of the iconic fountain on warm summer days as a kid, or skipping American Government every Friday my entire senior year to come to the Brown Bag Lunch Concerts.

But the world changes and institutions need to grow and change with it.

The Lillibridge Wing and the renovations to the Carnegie Library Wing are not only taking the National Music Museum to the next level, they are elevating Vermillion as a visitor and research destination as well.

- You know, I spread the gospel everywhere I go around South Dakota and the region about this place and the collection, the greatest collection of musical instruments in the world.

And I one time had a person say to me, "Well, it's not like you've got the Magna Carta."

And I said, "Oh, but we do.

"The King Cello is the rarest and most priceless instrument "on the planet that exists today, and we have it."

But that's only one of over 15,000.

And this expansion allows us to continue to come back and make this collection available to research, to students, to visitors, and put us on the map.

Time, talent, and treasure has been given to make this thing a reality.

There were times when we didn't know we can get it done, but ladies and gentlemen, we're here.

We still got work to do.

We gotta finish out all the galleries.

Funny thing happens on the way to building a new museum and putting an addition on, new exhibitions cost a lot of money, so we're getting there, we're not done.

But today, you are gonna see something astounding when you go in there.

- [Narrator] The new Lillibridge Wing addition houses office space, a gift shop, a new performance hall, as well as a special gallery for rotating exhibits.

- Good afternoon, everyone.

Welcome to the National Music Museum.

I'm Dwight Vaught, the Director of the National Music Museum, joined up here by several folks from our community, the NMM Board of Trustees, and many of our staff members.

It's a pleasure to welcome you here today.

We're here today for a ribbon cutting to open all of the first floor galleries of the National Music Museum after being closed for a little while.

- [Narrator] When the first floor galleries in the Carnegie Building were opened in 2023, it could not have been imagined that the humble beginnings of Arne Larson's instrument collection had grown into such an amazing treasure.

The museum had come alive.

(bright music continues) - The National Music Museum is just an incredible treasure that we have here in our community.

We're a small town, and although we have a lot to offer, I think people are very surprised when they find out we have a world class museum right here in our midst.

- And we were written up earlier this year as one of the 15 best cities to visit by "Smithsonian Magazine," and a large part was because of the National Music Museum is such a gem for the world.

- The museum means an incredible amount to our College of Fine Arts.

We have the only graduate program with an emphasis in the history of musical instruments in the country, and we're able to offer that out of our College of Fine Arts.

- All the way to Elvis's guitar, to Bill Clinton sax, to all our brass collection and all the things that we have, it's just a really diverse collection.

There's something for everybody.

(playful piano music) (playful piano music continues) (playful piano music continues)