Events

Mar 23

For over 600 years, stringed keyboard instruments have served as repositories for human imagination, science, technology, craft, artistry, and music. They are admired for their stature – and oftentimes stunning beauty – alongside their ability to play both melody and harmony. Keyboard innovation has continuously expanded throughout the world, throughout time.



Opening in March 2024, the special exhibition “High Strung: Five Centuries of Stringed Keyboard Instruments” will explore the form, function and development of keyboard instruments from early harpsichords to the modern piano. The special exhibition brings together nearly 20 keyboard instruments from the NMM’s collections - some of which have never before been on exhibit.



Instruments that will be on display include:


• An octave virginal (NMM 4660), from the same workshop as the NMM’s Neapolitan harpsichord, c.1530 (NMM 14408)

• A highly decorated harpsichord by Andreas Ruckers, 1643 (NMM 10000)

• Harpsichord by Nicolas Dufour, 1683 (NMM 5943, pictured below), made in Paris in a native style that fell from popularity by the first decade of the 18th century

• French grand piano, Clavecin à marteaux, (harpsichord with hammers) by Louis Bas (NMM 4653) from 1781. This instrument, the earliest surviving French grand piano, is exceptional, retaining much of its original action parts

• Downward-striking piano by Nanette Streicher und Sohn (NMM 10298), and a small trapezoid hammer instrument by Gottfried Maucher (NMM 4570) – an example of a lesser-known instrument type, similar to the tangentenflugel by Späth and Schmahl, built c.1784 (NMM 4145), which was once a favorite instrument type of Mozart

• Grand piano by Erard (NMM 5984) and Chickering & Sons (NMM 5413), built at a time in which America led the way in piano technology, not only with grand pianos, but also with the large ”square” pianos by makers such as William Knabe & Company (NMM 14447)



“High Strung: Five Centuries of Stringed Keyboard Instruments” will open to the public on March 23, 2024 in the NMM’s Jason & Betsy Groves Special Exhibition Gallery. It will remain open through the calendar year. Support for the exhibition is provided by generous grants from the Clayton and Odessa Lang Ofstad Foundation and the City of Vermillion, SD.

Fee: $Included with Museum Admission

Apr 01

Visit the SD Discovery Center in Pierre as they help celebrate Month of the Military Child. Military youth and families receive free admission throughout the month of April. Learn more at https://sd-discovery.org.

Apr 25

Opening reception for our newest exhibit.

Free and open to the public.

Refreshments will be served.

Apr 25

Pierre Players Community Theatre presents LOVE, LOSS, AND WHAT I WORE, a dramatic comedy play of monologues and ensemble pieces about women, clothes, and memory covering all the important subjects- mothers, prom dresses, mothers, buying bras, mothers, hating purses and why we only wear black by Nora Ephron and Delia Ephron, based on the best-selling book by Ilene Beckerman. Presented by special arrangement by Dramatists Play Service.

Show dates are FRIDAY April 19th, SATURDAY April 20th and THURSDAY April 25th THROUGH SATURDAY April 27th at 7:30 p.m., with a 2 p.m. Sunday matinee on SUNDAY April 21st at the Grand Opera House in Pierre. For reservations call 605-224-7826 or visit pierreplayers.com for more details.

Pierre Players presents LOVE, LOSS, AND WHAT I WORE sponsored in part by: Grey Goose Store & Social Club, Capital City Ford Lincoln Toyota, Allied Plumbing & Heating, First Dakota National Bank, Foster Rentals, Smart Software Solutions, and Pierre First United Methodist Church.

Fee: $25 at the door