Musik Innovations to close at end of the year

A destination for music lovers for the past 36 years will close Dec. 31.

Musik Innovations in McCandless, a family-owned business, is a one-stop shot of sorts for music needs: It sells sheet music and instruments, operates an instrument repair shop, houses a host of rooms where music teachers hold lessons, and has a gift shop that offers music-themed items.

The business was founded by local musicians Jean and Rita Wilmouth. Their daughter, Gretchen, helped her mother run the business after her father died in 2007, and she took over when her mother died in 2012. She is the business manager, and her sister, Daniele Wilmouth, is the creative director who does the advertising and online presence.

However, Gretchen Wilmouth lives in Falls Church, Va., with her husband, and has been commuting to the store for eight years. The store’s lease is up Dec. 31, so she said they made the reluctant decision to close it at that time.

“I’m glad to have been involved and able to continue our family tradition for the last eight years. But it has also been difficult,” she said. “Signing another lease is just not a good option at this time. Unfortunately, even good things come to an end at some point.”

Ms. Wilmouth informed the eight employees and the 58 full- and part-time music teachers, who rent space on the lower level of the store for private lessons, of the store’s upcoming closing last week. Some of the employees and many of the teachers have been with the store for 20 years, she added.

“It was obviously an extremely hard decision to do that,” she said. “We’ve done our thing. We’ve done it well.”

Jean and Rita Wilmouth began Musik Innovations as a mail-order business from their home. The store moved to a building at Route 19 and Ingomar Road but soon outgrew that location and moved to the present building at Route 19 and Pine Creek Road 10 years ago.

The Wilmouths both received music degrees from Carnegie Institute of Technology, now CarnegieMellon University, and met while playing with the Wilkinsburg Symphony Orchestra.

Jean Wilmouth was an internationally known musician and educator. He began the elementary instrumental music program in the Fox Chapel Area School District in 1963 and later was a vice president of Volkwein Bros. Music Store. He founded the Gateway to Music Percussion Ensemble, which performed

concerts at schools, retirement communities and prisons for almost 30 years. He performed regularly with the Butler Symphony Orchestra and the Mister Rogers band.

Rita Wilmouth began singing in elementary school, performing solo, with her school choir and as a member of the Hickman Trio with her cousins. She was a choir member in three churches throughout the Pittsburgh area and sang in the chorus for the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera. She taught elementary classroom music as well as private voice lessons She was on the board of the Pittsburgh Concert Society and the Pittsburgh Youth Concert Orchestra.

Gretchen Wilmouth took a different route, majoring in mathematics and operations research. She did information technology work for the Federal Aviation Administration and NASA before helping with the family business.

She spent most of her time in Pittsburgh, meeting her husband occasionally for a long weekend halfway between their jobs. She joked that they “know all the good places” in the areas of Bedford County and Cumberland, Md.

She said the store’s customers and staff “appreciate that I stuck with it as long as I could.” The highlight of helping with the business was seeing the young music students improve, she said.

“We want to help everyone get through the busiest time — the beginning of the school year and preparation for the holidays. Our string repair shop and school of music will continue to operate normally through the transition,” she said.

“We really have a good thing going, and we want to go out on a high note.”