Community Corner

Manassas Music Store Celebrates One Year Anniversary


In the market for a ukelele? How about a requinto guitar or a bagpipe? NOVA Music Center in Old Town Manassas specializes in the sale of instruments not easily found.

It has hundreds of ukeleles in stock and an entire room filled with similar instruments including a silver, professional-level baritone guitar—something that's hard to find, Erich Russekrobbins, the owner of the shop, said.
 
The store not only sells instruments and thousands of pages of sheet music, but is also a sort of gathering place for local musicians, he added.

"We want to be a community store," Russekrobbins said. "We have free open jam sessions every Friday and we often provide food."

The store's rehearsal room is where many bands have formed, he said.

There is also a self-recording studio that can be rented for a low price.

Private practice rooms for music teachers and students come with a device that records the practice session so the student can review it later at home, he said.

The music store, which recently celebrated its one year anniversary in Manassas, actually opened its first location in late 2010 in Clifton, where he and his family reside.

He gave his 9-year-old daughter a chance to "invest" in the Manassas shop by affording her space in the store to sell what she wants.

"She got $150 up front and the money she makes from the stuff she sells, she reinvests," he said. "It's mostly gift items.  She's a kid, she knows what other kids would enjoy," she said.  

Russettrobbins has another day job, but having the store is a way he can express his love for music.
" ... I played with a Turkish orchestra, a mariachi band; I truly love all types of music," he said.

In school, he turned to music because he didn't have many friends, he said.  He started playing the clarinet in the third grade and eventually tried the French horn and the tenor saxophone.

"As a child I was a loner.  I spent a lot of time playing with instruments. I went to a preppy school and didn't fit in. I was wearing moccasins when people were wearing penny loafers," he said.

NOVA Music Center is located at 8963 Center St. Store hours are 12 to 8 p.m. Monday-Friday, Saturday 10 to 6 p.m. and Sunday 1 to 5 p.m.


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