The prestigious National Music Museum in Vermillion, South Dakota, is undergoing an architectural transformation, and is not set to reopen to the public until 2021. But thanks to a close collaboration with Cremona’s Museo del Violino, nine of the US museum’s great Cremonese treasures are returning this month to the city of their birth, where they will go on display for more than a year. The landmark ‘Reunion in Cremona’ exhibition at the Museo del Violino runs from 21 September 2019 until 18 October 2020, and includes instruments by Antonio Stradivari, Nicolò Amati, Antonio and Girolamo Amati, Nicola Bergonzi and Lorenzo Storioni. Matt Collinsworth, director of the National Music Museum, and Paolo Bodini of the Fondazione Museo del Violino introduce the background to the exhibition below, and two senior members of the National Music Museum’s curatorial team profile the instruments that will be on display.
The collections of instruments at the National Music Museum (NMM) are representative of the grandest and best works of luthiers of past times. The nine musical gems presented in this exhibition have been chosen from our Witten-Rawlins Collection, not only for the reason that they are masterworks, but because their journeys through the pages of history have preserved them in nearly original condition. Throughout the centuries and by many twists of fate, they have continued to attest to the fundamental part that Cremonese luthiers have played in the history of musical performance. It is this fact that has made them an important and essential part of our collection and has encouraged us to share them in this collaborative exhibition.