Left, Violin Outlet owner Mara Lieberman, holding a violin, will celebrate 25 years of the store at 900 E. Karen Ave., Suite A122, in New Orleans Square, with a customer appreciation party on Saturday. She stands with her employees, front row from left, Brenna Luman, Kyle Milleret and Sabrina Saffel, and back row from left, Bob Taras, Athena Schreur, Winston Canilao and Johnalee Collier. Bottom, Saffel, the store’s manager, holds a small violin, which is something that Lieberman said "a 2- or 3-year-old would start with."Photos By David Becker/View
David Becker/ViewJim Wilson, repairman for Violin Outlet, looks for a repair ticket for a school violin that has a broken bridge. Wilson has been fixing broken string instruments for about 30 years, 15 of them at the 900 E. Karen Ave. shop.
Left, Violin Outlet owner Mara Lieberman, holding a violin, will celebrate 25 years of the store at 900 E. Karen Ave., Suite A122, in New Orleans Square, with a customer appreciation party on Saturday. She stands with her employees, front row from left, Brenna Luman, Kyle Milleret and Sabrina Saffel, and back row from left, Bob Taras, Athena Schreur, Winston Canilao and Johnalee Collier. Bottom, Saffel, the store’s manager, holds a small violin, which is something that Lieberman said "a 2- or 3-year-old would start with."Photos By David Becker/View
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The activity inside Violin Outlet, a corner shop at New Orleans Square, is fairly predictable.
On a recent afternoon, Jim Wilson repaired violins in a side workshop of the store just as he has for the past 15 years. Seventeen-year-old Kyle Milleret, who first stepped into the shop for lessons at 5 years old, greeted customers from behind the counter. Bob Taras, a 23-year employee, prepared to teach an afternoon lineup of violin and viola lessons. Store manager Sabrina Saffel, who's worked at the outlet for 15 years, tapped away at her computer in a back room.
"Longevity is our thing," said Mara Lieberman as she swiftly walked through the small shop at 900 E. Karen Ave., Suite A122, greeting each worker. "Without them, this wouldn't exist."
Lieberman is considered the brainchild and mother of Violin Outlet.
"Mara is like that mom that you can go to with anything -- she makes things right," said Brenna Luman, who took cello lessons for 10 years at the shop before she was on the payroll four years ago. "We're all just like a family."
Lieberman credits the shop's staff of 18 for carrying out her vision for the violin store -- a vision that has not wavered since she fell into the business 25 years ago.
Aside from her mounting orders for instruments, little has changed in the shop over the years. And that's the point, said Lieberman, 53.
"Where else can you go in Las Vegas and see the same people after all these years?" she said. "A lot of people run away, but some of us have to stick around. I think people want a little bit of history."
Violin Outlet will celebrate its 25th anniversary with a customer appreciation party from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday with refreshments, deals, 25 gift basket giveaways and, of course, live music.
The musical lineup includes the Clark County High School chamber ensemble, Mariachi Damas de Las Vegas, students from the Nevada School of the Arts and several professional strolling violinists. Discounts on nearly everything will continue through the end of the year.
"This isn't about us," Lieberman said of the celebration. "This is about thanking everyone we've worked with."
At 5 years old, Lieberman moved from Italy with her parents -- two concert pianists -- and her sister, Liana Roetter-Turello, an opera singer. She took up the violin when she was young because the pianos in her home were constantly occupied. She finally learned the piano three years ago and admits she's addicted.
Lieberman, who's never taken a business class but graduated from UNLV with a degree in French, became an entrepreneur by accident. She taught orchestra at a high school for a year and quickly found that it was tough to find sheet music for her students. Eyeing a market that needed to be filled, Lieberman went to a friend who owned a music shop and convinced him to let her carry violins there. She put up part of the money to buy the stock and the two sold string instruments together. After a couple of years, the store owner told Lieberman he wanted to go solo. He offered to buy her out or give her half the stock.
One of her regular customers urged her to take half the stock and start her own shop.
"I said, 'OK, I'll give it a shot,' " Lieberman said.
Her friends let her sell violins from a storage room in the back of their day care center on Charleston Boulevard. She included "outlet" in the title of her shop, hoping it would help customers tolerate her makeshift setting.
"And these people actually came," Lieberman said. "I couldn't believe it."
The back alley outlet didn't make Frank Irvin flinch. Irvin was one of the first orchestra teachers in town in 1984 and is now the fine arts director at Cheyenne High School. He has sent his students to Violin Outlet for 24 years.
"Mara had the ability to get violins in the hands of students for very little money, and whenever there was a student that couldn't afford it, she would accommodate them," he said. "I think she's more concerned with the development of musicians than any business model."
After a year of operating out of the day care storage room, Lieberman had enough regular customers to move into a suite in New Orleans Square, near Commercial Center. Violin Outlet soon grew into three suites and her staff grew to include nine teachers, four full-time workers, five part-time workers and one subcontractor.
Violin Outlet has drawn regular customers from nearly every orchestra in the valley, and it is the Clark County School District's largest supplier for student instruments.
"She's there for us whenever we need her," Sierra Vista High School orchestra director Shelly Burger said.
Burger moved to Las Vegas 24 years ago to teach just as the valley's first high school orchestras were getting started.
"The store has grown right along with us," she said.
Lieberman said more than anything else, patience is the key to a successful business.
"I started with nothing," she said. "And it grew. I couldn't be happier."
For more information, call 733-3028 or visit www.violinoutlet.com.
Contact Southeast and Southwest View reporter Danielle Nadler at dnadler@viewnews.com or 224-5524.
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