Owners support music education

After opening in 2009, Fishburn Violin Shop wasted little time establishing its role in the community.

The shop, run by cellist Dean Fishburn, violist Mike Willer and violinist Lyn Tarver, is the go-to rental venue for stringed instruments for the orchestras at five area school districts: Tomball, Katy, Cy-Fair, Klein and Humble.

"We want to support music education in schools," Fishburn said. "That's our main focus—to provide them a quality product and service for a reasonable amount of money. We want the teachers to be able to focus on the teaching without having to worry about the quality of the instruments."

Fishburn opened up shop with Tarver and Willer after the music store where they worked—part of the H & H Music chain—closed down.

"We threw all our money together, took out a loan and opened it up," he said. "Music is something we've always done. We just decided to do it ourselves."

Since that time, business has increased by about 20 percent each year, according to Fishburn. They rented out roughly 1,500 violins through the last school year, including about 150 to Tomball ISD students, and are projecting the increase to continue as music programs expand.

Fishburn travels to schools each week and meets with program directors and students. Willer is a band director at Klein High School and has been teaching for about 20 years, and Fishburn was also an orchestra teacher for six years in the '70s.

While the bulk of its sales come from rentals, which run $20–$30 per month, Fishburn also sells instruments. The higher quality products range from $1,000 to around $30,000. Rental instruments come mostly from manufacturers, but Fishburn also buys handmade instruments from a variety of vendors throughout the United States and through auctions.

"We do it a little different than most music shops," Fishburn said. "Everything we have in our store has been played and approved by us. We don't just order it. If it ain't worth it, then we don't buy it."

In the future, Fishburn said he plans on branching out to other school districts in the area. The three owners have also discussed the possibility of purchasing some electric violins and equipment. However, their focus, while they are still fairly new, is to increase their pool of rental instruments and pick up some more high quality ones when they can, Fishburn said.

No matter what happens, the focus will remain on music education, he said.

"It's just rewarding to see kids come up through the program. You heard them in here trying to play when they first got started, and two or three years later they can really play something," Fishburn said. "We kind of feel like we had a little hand in that."

Fishburn Violin Shop, 11435 Spring Cypress Road, Ste. C, Tomball, 281-290-4580, www.fishburnviolin.com