Lois and Daryl Durran Credit: Provided. All Rights Reserved.
November 1, 2024
Longtime School of Music faculty member Daryl Durran and his wife, Lois Durran, a violinist, have made an estate commitment of $750,000 to establish the Daryl and Lois Durran Endowment for the School of Music, which will provide scholarship support to undergraduate and graduate students in the school. Daryl Durran, professor emeritus of pedagogy and performance in bassoon, retired in 2022 after 39 years on the faculty.
“The number one need for the School of Music since I arrived in 1983 is scholarships, especially for undergrads,” said Durran. “My colleagues and I cannot count how many times we hear students say that Penn State is their first choice, but they cannot afford it. It’s getting them in the door that’s the real challenge.”
While on the faculty, Durran taught bassoon, coached wind chamber music and was bassoonist with the Pennsylvania Quintet. He and Lois, along with Douglas Meyer, founded the Pennsylvania Chamber Orchestra Society in 1990, resulting in the first all-professional chamber orchestra in central Pennsylvania.
According to Ann Marie Stanley, director of the School of Music, the Durrans have spent their lives passing their expertise on to the next generation of musicians and are now giving even more of themselves to the School of Music.
“Through Daryl and Lois’ years of teaching and supporting Penn State musicians, they have equipped countless music students to meet their potential. We are grateful for that alone and consider their years of presence at the school to be a gift in itself,” said Stanley. “With this scholarship fund to support our School of Music faculty in finding and admitting the most talented and qualified musicians — without regard for students’ ability to afford tuition — the Durrans will continue to influence the wonderful musicians of Penn State for years to come.”
Daryl Durran noted that the School of Music’s needs are different from other academic units because “every freshman student body needs to have all its ‘parts.’”
“We need to have the right number of bassoon players, violinists, male singers, female singers, et cetera,” explained Durran. “We are recruiting very specific skills.”
He noted that students the School of Music would like to enroll are often recruited by other institutions that are able to offer more scholarship support.
“I have experienced this on many occasions, and that is what prompted us to establish this endowment. Hopefully this will encourage others to do similar things,” he said.
Gifts to the School of Music advance the University’s historic land-grant mission to serve and lead. Through philanthropy, alumni and friends are helping students to join the Penn State family and prepare for lifelong success; driving research, outreach and economic development that grow our shared strength and readiness for the future; and increasing the University’s impact for families, patients and communities across the commonwealth and around the world. Learn more by visiting raise.psu.edu.
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