Northern Kingdom Music came into being in the late 1970's when Wendy Bell, a young singer-songwriter, started a small acoustic music shop. She opened on Bayview Street in Camden, Maine under the name 'Northern Kingdom Folk Music Shop' selling new, used and vintage folk instruments. In 1979 the shop was acquired by Ted Pieri, who changed the name to Northern Kingdom Music and immediately began to expand the inventory to include combo instruments and P.A.systems.

In 1982 a second location was added in Bangor, Maine. It was only a few years later that we moved the Camden shop to a local landmark building on U.S. Rt. 1 just over the town line into Rockport, having outgrown the space on the Camden waterfront. By the end of the decade Northern Kingdom Music carried all of the major brands and was the largest music store in the state, offering drums, guitars, keyboards, recording equipment, sheet music, accessories and lessons from its two locations.

Northern Kingdom expanded into the school music field in 1987, adding a full line of step-up and professional grade woodwind and brass instruments and starting a rent-to-own program for school band students. Our growth continued, and we created the current NK Music Family of Companies with the addition of Aroostook Music of Presque Isle, Maine in early 1999 and Taylor Music of Turner, Maine in mid-2001. Taylor Music was and remains a service center and repair shop dedicated to serving music educators. Aroostook Music was a successful educational service center which now has a strong, growing retail store built on the successful model of our Rockport store. At present, we serve over 125 school systems in Maine and New Hampshire as their primary vendor of rental instruments and serve retail customers statewide from our full-line stores.

Our success can be attributed to our superb staff of 23 dedicated professionals, whose main focus is customer service. From our beginnings as a one-person shop to our current status as a multi-location family of companies, one thing has remained a constant: our focus on customer service. Our friendly, knowledgeable, professional staff is waiting to serve you!