Shulman Donation Expands Milner Music Collection

Thanks to a retired chemist with an ear for Mozart, Bach and Beethoven, patrons at Illinois State University's Milner Library will soon have access to a greatly expanded collection of musical recordings.  Sol Shulman, a professor emeritus of chemistry, recently donated approximately 2,600 CDs from his personal music collection to Milner Library.

The Professor Emeritus Sol Shulman Collection consists mostly of classical music recordings with a strong emphasis on concertos and opera. The donation also includes unique collections of klezmer and Russian military music.  In addition to the sheer number of CDs, the collection is also valuable because it contains many comparative recordings of different orchestras and artists performing individual works.  Once the collection is fully cataloged, it will serve as a valuable resource for music faculty and students. 

 "Professor Shulman's donation increases our CD collection by 33 percent, replacing many performances we only had on LP and adding wonderful new recordings by world renown artists," said Christine Kubiak, Milner's music, theatre and media librarian.  "This is an amazing collection for all our music students whether they are studying performance, composition, conducting, music therapy or just performing in a campus musical ensemble."

Shulman came to Illinois State in 1969 to serve as chair of the Department of Chemistry and retired from the faculty in 1992.  After retirement he served on the University's Foundation Board of Directors and played an active role as a consultant in the design and construction of Illinois State's Science Laboratory Building.