South Dakota museum now home to renowned cello, bow collection

Gift includes instruments from 16th and 17th centuries

The National Music Museum on the campus of the University of South Dakota in Vermillion is the new home of centuries-old cellos, part of a broader collection of stringed instruments.

The museum announced this week that it’s taken ownership of a significant stringed instrument collection once owned by the late cellist and collector Robert Cancelosi, including a trio of cellos dating back to the 1600s.

In all, five cellos, 27 bows, archival materials and a Hawaiian guitar Cancelosi used as a child arrived at the NMM late last month as part of a promised gift from Ken Cancelosi in memory of his father.

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“To all teachers and students called to perform and study the art of music, I give these tools to you,” Ken Cancelosi said in a statement accompanying the announcement of the gift. “I hope these diverse sounds and the music they create inspire you as they did my father.”

The three cellos highlighting the collection are between 247 and 340 years old, are still playable and will be showcased during an upcoming Rawlins Piano Trio concert on Sunday as part of the “NMM Live!” concert series. The concert is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. in the NMM’s Janet Lucille Wanzek Performance Hall. Admission is free.