MSU College of Music Collections
Aurand Collection of Musical Instruments
Vintage instruments are a tremendous resource to faculty and students when researching music and studying performance. The Aurand Collection of Musical Instruments became available to MSU musicians through a generous donation from MSU College of Music alumnus Dr. Charles Aurand of Tucson, Arizona. It consists of more than 200 rare and vintage musical instruments with markers and dates of origin spanning 300 years. A regular rotation of the collection is located in display cases on the first and second floors of the Billman Music Pavilion. It is among the most significant musical instrument collections in the country.
Scroll to view the collection, select a section of the collection below to peruse online, and learn more about Dr. Aurand and the origins of the collection in an article on our site.
- Single Reed Instruments
- Double Reed Instruments
- Wind Blown Instruments
- Reed Folk Instruments
- Flute Folk Instruments
- Wind Blown Folk Instruments
- Stringed Folk Instruments
Acknowledgements
By Dr. Charles Aurand
The development of this catalog would not have been possible without the help of three members of my family; Cheryl McMillen (daughter), and Sandra and Robert Burris (daughter and son-in-law).
Robert photographed the instruments, Sandra did the initial organization of the collection, and Cheryl organized the book's format and performed much of the detail work including the proofreading and the structure of the finished product.
The author is deeply indebted to these individuals for their many hours of professional assistance.
Finally, I was blessed to have a spouse for 56 years that supported and encouraged the effort to create this collection. Without the caring, loving support of Donna, this work would not have been possible.
