Jim March, a professor of music at Morningside College, will give a presentation at the 2014 May meeting of the Historical Keyboard Society of North America.

Jim March, professor of music at Morningside College, will give a presentation at the 2014 May meeting of the Historical Keyboard Society of North America, at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion.

The “Four Centuries of Masterpieces: Keyboards and Their Music” conference will take place May 14 -17 at the National Music Museum on the campus of the University of South Dakota.

March’s presentation, titled “Instrument Building as Experiential Learning in a Liberal Arts Curriculum,” will cover the process of constructing a late 18th-century style unfretted German clavichord with his 2013 May Term class. He will talk about the challenges he faced working with a group of novice builders, as well as the long-term benefits and skills they gained from their hands-on learning experience.  The presentation will include slides of the building process and a brief performance on the instrument.

Six students aided March in the building of the clavichord: Justin Dixson of Le Mars, Iowa; Cade Herrig of Wall Lake, Iowa; Katsu Ishii of Tokyo, Japan; Garret Lambrecht of Wood River, Neb.; Blair Remmers of Alton, Iowa; and Jade Sanchez of Sioux City.