Give Your Child a Head Start on Music Lessons

Moore Music Company

615 W. Market St. www.mooremusiccompany.com

For Al Stephens, president and owner of Moore Music Company, education and music go hand in hand. That’s why his business, which has been a Greensboro fixture for 80 years, invests heavily in Guilford County Schools’ music programs both during the school year and summer.

“I want kids to play music,” he said. “It carries over into improved grades across all subjects, improved discipline, just a whole number of things. Music programs give kids another family to belong to.”

Moore Music is a sponsor of three summer programs that are part of the school system’s Summer Arts Institute.

It is the sole funder of the Moore Music Band and Orchestra Jump Ahead, a program for rising sixth graders looking to start playing an instrument.

It also provides support for the Moore Music Honor Jazz Camp and the Moore Music Band and Orchestra Camp, both for grades 7-12. Before school starts back in August, Moore Music will host its annual workshop for Guilford County Schools music teachers.

Throughout the year, Stephens and his staff continue working with students — leasing and selling instruments, offering lessons and donating to local band booster clubs.

The store stocks a variety of instruments, from keyboards to guitars to ukeleles, as well as the largest collection of sheet music in central North Carolina.

Stephens said he sees supporting local students’ musical endeavors as a way to create a generation of people who will grow up to appreciate music, support the local arts scene and, hopefully, become lifelong customers.

“What I’d like us to be is the community’s music store, versus just another music store in the community,” he said.