New Piper Music Owner Moving Store, Adding Recital Hall and Teaching Studios

Piper Music
William Brooke poses with former Piper Music owner Mary Jackson. Photo courtesy: Piper Music.
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Submitted by Piper Music

The new owner of Piper Music has big plans for the longtime Bellingham retailer that is beloved by local musicians.

William Brooke purchased Piper Music from founder Mary Jackson in a transaction that closed April 29, according to Dick Zagelow, a broker at Moore and Company in Bellingham.

Piper Music, which has an extensive inventory of sheet music and also sells music accessories and used pianos, will remain at its current Fountain District location, 2512 Meridian St., through the end of May. Brooke then is moving it to a triangular-shaped building at 1705 N. State St., at the intersection with Franklin Street, where it will reopen in early June.

“This new space will house the retail store and also have a recital hall seating 30-40 people, plus four soundproofed teaching studios,” Brooke said. “We will rent the teaching studios on an hourly basis, as well as rent the recital hall. We also will start to hire highly qualified teachers of voice, piano, brass and woodwind instruments for private lessons.

“The recital hall will allow Piper Music to extend music education beyond private instruction by offering group classes in music theory, music history, pedagogy and master classes,” Brooke added. “We will offer educational music seminars and regular classical music performances for the community. We are developing the space and Piper Music to be the epicenter of conservatory-quality music education and performances in Bellingham.”

An accomplished performer, Brooke has sung as a lyric tenor with the Utah Festival Opera Company and in solo appearances in England, Austria and St. Mark’s Cathedral in Venice, Italy. He recently earned a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Washington and moved to Bellingham.

Brooke also has achieved success in the business world. He has worked as a financial analyst for an investment bank on the East Coast as part of a four-member team managing more than $5 billion in assets. In 2006, he established Derrick Horne Co., a real-estate development group focused on the Park City, Utah resort area.

“Not long after moving to Seattle for my doctoral studies, I identified Bellingham as an ideal location that would support a summer opera festival and looked for an opportunity to move here,” Brooke said. “With my background in investment banking and advanced vocal studies, Piper Music created the perfect synthesis of my business and musical expertise.”

The new owner praised Mary Jackson, who founded Piper Music in 1991.

“Her passion and commitment to customer service is inspiring and her intelligent knowledge of the products is truly amazing,” Brooke said. “I am a humble recipient of what she has nurtured, cared for and loved over so many years.”

Piper Music is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays. For more information, visit their Facebook page or call 360-738-7166.

 

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