André P. Larson to step down as National Music Museum executive director

André P. Larson, the founder and executive director of the National Music Museum in South Dakota, is to retire on 23 February. He established the museum, located on the University of South Dakota campus in Vermillion, in 1973. Among his major achievements was acquiring the Witten-Rawlins collection of rare Italian stringed instruments in 1984. The museum today holds more than 15,000 instruments, including several Stradivaris. Larson also established the Center for Study of the History of Musical Instruments, which offers the country's only graduate degree in the history of musical instruments.