Take Note

By Mark Loehrke
January 2025 View more Discover

From instruments to lessons, these local shops keep the music playing

Ellman’s Music Center

508 W. 5th Ave., Naperville

Technology has certainly brought its share of change to the music business since Gil Ellman founded Ellman’s Music Center in Chicago in 1958 (before moving it to Naperville in 1963), mostly in the rise of online instrument sales and rentals and the decline in cash transactions. But current president Pete Ellman (who is also a trumpeter and the leader of the seriously swingin’ Pete Ellman Big Band) says the saxophones, clarinets, and tubas the store introduces to kids—through direct sales and rentals, as well as the dozens of school bands and orchestras the store outfits—are mostly the same as they’ve always been. Also steadfastly unchanged, he believes, is the value of Ellman’s onsite lessons on those instruments. “In-person lessons are always the way to go,” he says. “As a teacher you can instantly troubleshoot your students during a lesson, and they get instant feedback.”
Good to Know: Carrying on the legacy of his grandfather’s master skills and the lineage of this family enterprise, third-generation Gilbert Michael Ellman III now runs the store’s well-regarded instrument repair shop.

Naperville Music

636 E. Ogden Ave., Naperville

Working out of a modest 1,500-square-foot space on Ogden Avenue, what began as a “day job” for musicians Rich Karnuth and Mark Gardner back in 1974 (allowing them to continue playing rock gigs at night) has grown into a 10,000-square-foot operation that has helped outfit and teach multiple generations of professional and amateur players from Naperville and beyond. While the store has seen its share of touring musicians stop in for fresh strings, replacement reeds, or even a brand-new guitar when they’ve blown through the Chicago area over the past 50 years, Karnuth says Naperville Music’s bread and butter continues to be those up-and-coming players still trying to find their sound and their song. From violins and drums to trumpets and flutes, the store supplies local school districts with more than 1,000 band and orchestra rental instruments, while an ever-growing staff of instructors helps keep the 14 teaching studios humming with private voice and instrument lessons for upward of 400 students every week.
Good to know: With Mark having retired in 2022 and Rich planning to do likewise in 2025, the business today is managed by fellow owners Nate Swygert and Russ Karnuth—whom Rich hopes will be the faces of Naperville Music for its next 50 years.

PM Music Center

4411 Fox Valley Center Drive, Aurora

PM Music Center already had been around for 40 years when Lew Shender and his business partner purchased it in 2022—which is why they didn’t see any reason to stray from the store’s obviously successful business model. “We particularly liked its dedication to the education market,” Shender says. “We saw it as an opportunity to ‘do well by doing good.’ ” To that end, Shender and his staff have continued to forge relationships with music teachers throughout the area and focus on their core business—renting and selling instruments to school bands and orchestras. And while instrument popularity can vary based on what’s happening in pop culture (flutes blew up back when Lizzo first hit the scene, for example), he notes that the past few years have seen a resurgence in other traditional school staples like alto saxophones, trumpets, and clarinets. Whatever instruments budding musicians choose, though, Shender says the most important thing is to keep encouraging that curiosity about music. “These teachers are wonderful people doing a very tough job, and it’s been great getting to know and supporting so many of them.”
Good to know: Formally launching this month at PM is Mariachi Mercado, a dedicated showroom for everything mariachi, from vihuelos and guitarrons to valve trombones and mariachi trumpets. “Schools are beginning to focus more on mariachi,” Shender says. “And we’ve found that in Mexican American communities it’s a great way for kids and parents to connect to their shared heritage and each other.”

Photos: Marie-Antonette Kanae (PM Music Center); Naperville Music; Patricia Watts (Ellman’s Music Center)