Stu Cohen, who founded The Music Emporium in Pittsburgh’s Shadyside neighborhood in 1968, and remained an active and influential leader in music retail for the next 55 years, passed away on Saturday morning, January 11, at the age of 84, after a 26-year battle with recurrent lymphoma.
Stu will be remembered as many things: a reveler and merrymaker, a husband, a father, an eclectic gastronome, a farmer, an intrepid world-traveler, a keen negotiator, and forward-thinking businessman.
Unabashedly quirky, his characteristic handlebar mustache and round, wire-framed glasses broadcast to the world that perhaps he belonged to another era. Possessing a deep reservoir of knowledge, he loved the esoteric, especially when it came to instruments, and his personal collection was a paean to the uncelebrated and long-lost innovators—names like Schutt, Larsen, and Dobson.
Having suffered the loss of his only son at the early age of 6 to a terminal illness, Stu invested the rest of his life nurturing the Music Emporium. The business became his child, and his employees and customers his extended family. Like any caring parent, he was stern, demanding, driven, irascible, mercurial, but also patient, loving, generous, doting and wise. Above all he learned that for any child to succeed in the world, a parent needs to let go. Stu was careful not to inextricably entwine his own name and persona with The Music Emporium. Instead, he knew when to step back and entrust the care of his business to the next generation of employees, better equipped to handle the increasingly fast-paced, ever-changing retail landscape.
In so doing, he empowered his partner and staff, allowing The Music Emporium to grow into something much bigger than himself and thrive in unforeseeable ways. At the same time, the store came to reflect the best parts of his nature: his love of friends and community, his passion for Old World craft and lore, and his eagerness to celebrate and impart that knowledge and interest to younger generations.
Stu will be missed in so many ways. He was a unique soul who left an indelible mark on the music retail world, and especially to those fortunate enough to get close to him and discover the sweet, kind, lovable, and childlike nature that lay within.
Thank you, Stu. We are all better for having shared the journey with you.
