Piano Craft expands with purchase of Evans Music

One local piano store will play its final note May 31 after a long history in Springfield.

Evans Music, located at 1675 E. Seminole, will close after being sold to Piano Craft, Springfield's largest piano dealer, on March 31. The location will close on May 31.

Don Evans said he and his wife, Beth, decided it was the right offer from the right people. Evans said he has had offers in the last two years for his exclusive Yamaha dealership from companies in Kansas City, Chicago, Des Moines, Iowa, and Tulsa, Okla. In the end, Evans decided to go with a business more familiar to the area.

"I wanted to deal with local people, people that have been established here in the Ozarks and have served the Ozarks," Evans said.

Both parties declined to reveal the sales price.

Piano Craft opened its first store at 3100 S. Fremont Ave. in April 1999 under the ownership of Greg Murdaugh and Lee Coats. In March 2001, Piano Craft opened a new second location as the main store at 2868 S. Glenstone Ave. Currently the store has 8,500 square feet of piano space. With the addition of the Yamaha dealership, Piano Craft will expand to 14,000 square feet and become one of the largest piano stores in Missouri, Murdaugh said.

Three new employees will be added to Piano Craft for a total of 18 employees. Piano Craft has seven full-time instructors who teach 350 piano and organ students each week.

Evans will continue to work for Piano Craft as a salesman under a four-year contract. Evans said he will enjoy still being able to work in the business he has known for many years without having the worries of being an owner.

Evans opened his first store, Kimball Keyboards, in the East Seminole location in 1973. In 1985, Kimball Keyboards closed and Evans merged with Bill Lines to become owner of Lines Music. The Evanses bought out the company in 1991 and changed the name to Evans Music. The store became an exclusive Yamaha dealer in 1992.

Now the final change for Evans means giving control to another local owner who Evans hopes will carry on his tradition.

"The Murdaugh people have been here their whole entire lives. They've done a lot of service work and they know how to treat the people here in the Ozarks." Evans said. "I could have made more money but I didn't. I wanted them to have the business because I know how they will run their business. They will run it like what I did for all those years or close to it."

With a little more free time, Evans said he will spend extra time fishing and being with his grandchildren, who were part of the motivation to sell the business. Evans said the final decision was made after simple request from his granddaughter.

"She said to me, Papa, I need to spend more time with you." I said You're going to get the chance to do that, honey,'" Evans said.