Skyline Music Develops Generations of Talent

Over the past 25 years, has helped generations of students discover and develop their musical talents. The store kicked off their birthday celebration on Thursday, but the party will continue all year long.

For owner Dan Vedda, the time has flown by, and he has seen many talented students go on to study music performance or education at college or a conservatory.

“Some of them were our students here 10 years ago and they’ve gone off to college and started to make a life of their own,” he said. “They come home to visit mom and dad and they’re stopping in to say hi, and it’s great. It’s a great thing.”

Vedda is starting to see the children of former students coming through, and said he loves when they stop by to catch up.

“They just stopped by to say hi because they were happy to see that the store was still here, especially with the economy and everything," he said. "It shows they were thinking of us.”

Skyline Music’s teachers are mostly local musicians, including faculty from Oberlin, Baldwin Wallace and Cleveland State University. Most have bachelor’s or master’s degrees. 

“It’s a great vote of confidence when teachers attached to an institution like that would come and teach at a local music store. For a lot of them, it’s like missionary work in the sense that the people who are already serious about music are going to go to a conservatory. There are plenty of really talented kids that come up and their parents didn’t’ play; they don’t know this or that. They just come to the local music store." 

After their first nine years in business, Skyline moved across Dover Village Shopping Center and expanded to double its original size and added three more studios.

“With the growing demand for lessons, we needed somewhere to put the students,” Vedda said.

While middle school and high school students make up a big part of Skyline’s clientele, Vedda said he has seen a lot more children under 9, and adults getting interested in playing.

“Our big growth has been in the adults,” he said. “We’ve got everything from kids right out of college through retirement age. It’s a really, really burgeoning area.”