{"id":575487121,"date":"2021-10-10T08:10:00","date_gmt":"2021-10-10T13:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/correspondents\/2021\/10\/10\/mar-schells-continues-to-encourage-musicians"},"modified":"2021-10-08T10:13:47","modified_gmt":"2021-10-08T15:13:47","slug":"mar-schells-continues-to-encourage-musicians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/correspondents\/2021\/10\/10\/mar-schells-continues-to-encourage-musicians","title":{"rendered":"Mar-Schell\u2019s continues to encourage musicians"},"content":{"rendered":"

The bright sign in front of Mar-Schell’s Music says “Over 40 years in business” and offers a free lesson to anyone, no strings attached.<\/div>\n
Does that mean I can get a free ukulele lesson? (That would make Great Aunt Sophie, who once played at the Ukrainian Labour Temple, very proud). Hmm… I might also take that six-lesson special for only $99 with free instrument and lesson-book rental…<\/div>\n
“The answer is yes”, said Mars-Schells owner Mark Galbon, who pioneered the long -time North Kildonan business after starting out as a 15-year-old as music instructor at Kolt Music School and Sales. After he bought the Kolt location in 1981, Mar-Schell’s was born. It thrived for many years at the Henderson Highway building once known for its huge guitar mural.<\/div>\n
Mar-Schell’s recently moved to a new space nearby, at 1109 Henderson Hwy., where two floors have been transformed with a strategic layout and top-of-the-line HVAC air exchange for every room. There are nine newly built lesson rooms with discrete plastic shields and spaciously designed waiting areas (with Wi-Fi, too).<\/div>\n
Galbon wanted to continue his vision for Mar-Schell’s – which is to foster community connections and performance opportunities for his students. Mar-Schell’s offers a variety of music lessons in any style – rock, classical, urban – including voice classes, along with instrument sales, rentals, and repair.<\/div>\n
That meant resurrecting the performance space Mar-Schell’s has always been known for in the store’s new location. It can now be found on the lower level. <\/div>\n
Many people have discovered their musical ambitions and explored their talents on Mar-Schell’s stage, where open mic nights featuring a variety of performance and student showcases where often held<\/div>\n
One long time act born of Mar-Schell’s is the popular Campfire Junkies, a charitable non-profit band for hire composed of former and present students.<\/div>\n
Just before COVID-19 hit last year, Galbon had a light-bulb moment during the magic of a jam night. The sheer talent he was seeing made him think of creating a group called The Marmalades –  a slick, audition-only band created to play professionally as much as possible.<\/div>\n
As Galbon spoke, I noticed a large framed photo of a 1930s-era orchestra, its sign proudly displaying the moniker Galbon – his great uncle’s popular dance band.<\/div>\n
Another photo shows Galbon playing bass alongside Burton Cummings, who just happened to drop by one of Galbon’s gigs to sing a few songs.<\/div>\n
“I have never worked a day in my life, this is just a lot of fun”, said Galbon who is also looking forward to opening up to on-line sales at the store’s web page, www.marschellsmusic.com<\/div>\n
Shirley Kowalchuk is a Winnipeg writer who loves her childhood home of East Kildonan where she still resides.<\/div>\n
She can be reached at sakowalchuk1@gmail.com<\/div>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":296653101,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"_classifai_error":"","_classifai_text_to_speech_error":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"education-subject":[],"media-literacy-topic":[],"post_topic":[],"content_type":[24],"class_list":["post-575487121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-correspondents"],"acf":{"short_title":"","seo_title":"","deck":"","story_tag":"","byline":"Shirley Kowalchuk ","updates":null},"apple_news_notices":[],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/correspondents\/2021\/10\/10\/mar-schells-continues-to-encourage-musicians","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Mar-Schell\u2019s continues to encourage musicians","url":"http:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/correspondents\/2021\/10\/10\/mar-schells-continues-to-encourage-musicians","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/correspondents\/2021\/10\/10\/mar-schells-continues-to-encourage-musicians"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2022\/04\/e-comm-eastkildonan-kowalchuk-oct6.jpg?w=150&h=150&crop=1","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2022\/04\/e-comm-eastkildonan-kowalchuk-oct6.jpg"},"articleSection":"Community Correspondents","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"feedloaderapi"}],"creator":["feedloaderapi"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Our Communities","logo":""},"keywords":[],"dateCreated":"2021-10-10T13:10:00Z","datePublished":"2021-10-10T13:10:00Z","dateModified":"2021-10-10T13:10:00Z"},"rendered":"