NYC's Last Classical Sheet Music Shop Closes Its Doors

Heidi Rogers has owned Frank Music company, New York City's last classical sheet music store, for 36 years. On Friday, she will close her doors for the last time.

This 78-year-old shop shares the tenth floor of a Midtown building with rehearsal spaces and studios. Inside, metal shelves crammed with yellowing sheet music tower behind the front desk. Fading photos and newspaper cartoons are taped to the walls. Purchases are tallied on an old-style adding machine.

But while the shop does have an antiquated feel, its economic problems are grounded firmly in the present. Competition from online retailers has driven her fragile business into the red.

Rogers says she'll really miss the interaction with customers. But she's glad the music will have a new life — her inventory is all going to the Colburn Performing Arts School in Los Angeles. And sad though she is, she also calls herself lucky.

"I got to do something that really matters and that people really needed and that has great value," she said. "I met some of the greatest musicians who are just amazing people, and who made a lot of people happy with what they do. So if I help them, that's... that was what my job was, you know?"

A customer at Frank Music Company thumbs through a book of sheet music.

(All photos by Brad Horrigan/WNYC)

Aaron Van Heyningen, owner Heidi Rogers's only employee, walks through the stacks of sheet music at Frank Music Company in the store's last week of business.

Store proprietor Heidi Rogers says that websites like Amazon.com have put her out of business.

Heidi Rogers cracks a dry joke to employee Aaron Van Heyningen (not pictured here) during Frank Music Company's last week of business.

Store proprietor Heidi Rogers looks for a book of sheet music for a customer at Frank Music Company.

Frank Music Company has sold classical sheet music in Manhattan since 1937.

Heidi Rogers rings up a customer at Frank Music Company during one of its last days of business.

Frank Music Company is the last store in Manhattan to have specialized in selling classical sheet music.

After the doors close on Friday, Frank Music Company store proprietor Heidi Rogers will spend more time with her husband at their home in the Catskills. She will continue to raise chickens there.

A photograph of Igor Stravinsky hangs on the wall at Frank Music Company.

Heidi Rogers' grace and sense of humor were on display even in Frank Music Company's last days of business.

New York will now be without a classical sheet music retailer.

Loyal customer and friend David Satz hugs store owner Heidi Rogers after learning of the impending closing of the shop. Satz has been buying sheet music at Frank since Rogers bought the store in 1978.