National Music Museum names new director

A new director of the National Music Museum was named

Oct. 4.

Larry Schou, dean of the College of Fine Arts of the University of South Dakota, and Tom Lillibridge, chair of the Board of Trustees of the National Music Museum, announced the university and trustees selected Cleveland T. Johnson as the new director starting Nov. 1.

Johnson previously served as executive director of the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship at the Thomas J. Watson Foundation in New York City, N.Y. He served in that post while on leave as a professor of music at DePauw University in Greencastle, Ind., where he also served as dean of the School of Music.

Johnson has a Doctorate of Philosophy from Oxford University in England and a Bachelor’s of Music with a double major in Music History and Organ Performance from the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music in Oberlin, Ohio.

Margaret Downie Banks, the National Music Museum’s senior curator has served as interim director since March 2011, when founding director André Larson retired after 39 years. Banks will continue as interim director until Johnson’s arrival.