About
The first Music & Arts Center was located in a small house in Bethesda, Maryland, and run by founder Benjamin O'Brien (on the left, in the photo, with his father, John). That first store offered music lessons, music and art supplies plus dance lessons - thus the name Music & Arts. Since its beginning in 1952, the company gradually expanded outside the MD/VA area, adding retail stores in Atlanta, the Philadelphia area, the Carolinas, Nashville, Denver and most recently, the Northeast. With 62 stores throughout the East Coast and Colorado, Music & Arts Center soon became one of the largest retail music store chains serving a huge network of school band and orchestra programs. In 1998, the...