Musical Innovations Adds Staff, Affiliate Stores

Musical Innovations, NAMM’s 2015 Top 100 Dealer of the Year, is expanding, in order to continue providing its trademark exemplary service to schools and families in the Southeast.

Four new employees have joined the company’s Customer Amazement Team:

Vince Clayton, education specialist, recently retired after 34 years of teaching, the last 21 years at Ridge View High School in Columbia, South Carolina; Stuart Ray, Greenville Store manager, is a native of Columbia, South Carolina. For six years, he served as director of Bands at E.L. Wright Middle School and assistant director of the Spring Valley High School Viking Band; Heather McNeely, administrative specialist, is a native of Greenville, South Carolina. For 13 years, McNeely taught music history courses and applied trumpet lessons as an assistant professor of music at Bob Jones University; Melinda Henderson, customer service, has taught private piano and voice for many years and also sings in her church choir and accompanies students at her children’s school.

In addition to adding new employees, the company will be partnering with Fox Music House of Charleston, South Carolina, to provide band and string instruments and accessories to schools and families in the Low Country of SC. Fox Music House, a fixture in Charleston since 1928, is a fourth-generation family owned music company, specializing in pianos and organs, and sound system design and installation. Musical Innovations will also continue to offer band and string instruments, accessories and print music through their affiliate in Columbia (Sout Carolina), Rice Music House. Founded in 1924, Rice Music House has been a trusted icon of piano sales and service for area consumers, churches, universities, schools and institutions all over the Midlands of South Carolina. With these two additional locations, Musical Innovations is able to provide high-quality band and stringed instruments to students and schools all over the state. Musical Innovations is a full-line school music dealer, carrying most major lines of band and string instruments, classroom instruments, print music, accessories and gifts. They offer student rental and purchase plans, instrument repair, and lessons on all band and orchestra instruments, including Suzuki violin instruction for students as young as four.

Musical Innovations is active in supporting school music programs at the state and local level; they have won two SCMEA Friend of Music Business Awards (2009 and 2013); and the KEYS “Keeping the Beat” National Advocacy Award in 2009. Owner Tracy Leenman was also awarded RPMDA’s 2015 Sandy Feldstein Service Award. Nationally recognized as a major force in the music industry, they are active in the SC Music Educators Association (SCMEA), SC Band Directors Association (SCBDA), National Association for Music  Education (NAfME), SC Flute Society, NC Music Educators Association (NCMEA), NASMD (National Association of School Music Dealers), RPMDA (Retail Print Music Dealers Association), NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants), and the prestigious Associates of the American Bandmasters Association (ABA). After being named in NAMM’s Top 100 for three years in a row, the company won the Top 100 Dealer of the Year and Best Customer Service Awards in 2015. They were also named among the Small Business, Dream Big Blue Ribbon Award winners, awarded to the top 100 small businesses in America by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce

For more information about Musical Innovations, please check out the company’s Facebook or Twitter pages, its web site, www.musicalinnovations.biz, or call (864) 286-8742 [28-MUSIC].

Photo: Leenman and Joseph Fox of Fox Music House with SC Senator Scott, NAMM Fly-In to DC, 2016