In September 2014, two University of Michigan professors received a phone call that would set them on a race to save more than a half-century of African music. Heather Maxwell, a U-M alumna and current host of the Voice of America’s “Music Time in Africa” program, had phoned to tell them that the tapes, scripts…

Deep in the heart of U-M’s North Campus Research Complex (NCRC), the students of Musicology 406/506, “Musical Instruments of the World,” are hard at work. After weeks of classroom lectures, they are excited to gain hands-on experience with SMTD’s Stearns Collection of Musical Instruments. The workroom is a flurry of activity as students pick pieces…