Rossi Music: Oak Lawn Institution Educating Generations of Musicians

By Christine Schmidt

Lary Sidlow has an interesting name.

He spells his first name with one “r” because that’s how it’s phonetically spelled, he says, and he hates exceptions to grammatical rules. 

His last name is  made up because his father’s original eastern European last name was discarded when he joined the army for World War II. His superiors told him he had a better chance of surviving capture if he had an American-sounding name.

And he is often referred to as Mr. Rossi—but that comes with the territory of being the owner of Rossi Music, an Oak Lawn store that offers lessons, instruments, repairs, sheet music and more.

“I grew up believing that in a music store, service and lessons are paramount,” Sidlow said. “I’m not trying to be the rock star and sell you this fancy gear. I want the first time buyer in here, the person I can help out.”

Rossi Music was founded in 1958 by Sam Rossi. According to Sidlow, after Sam’s death in the ‘80s, Rossi’s sons tried to keep the store afloat but struggled with their lack of familiarity with music. Sidlow came along in 1987 to take the helm after convincing the sons to give it to him for the inventory. And after 26 years, “I’ve got people taking lessons here whose parents took lessons here,” Sidlow said.

The story of Sidlow and music began in fifth grade when he joined the band.

“I keep to myself, that’s the way I’ve always been—softspoken,” Sidlow said. “And when I was a kid, I had nothing to do so I started band, playing the trumpet.”

He switched to guitar about three years later. When his high school’s production of “Jesus Christ: Superstar” needed a guitarist, Sidlow stepped up. It worked in his favor. 

“At the end of the performance, we went downtown to this dinner and I had two young ladies sitting on either side of me.  They go, ‘Ooh, we like guitar players.’ And I said, ‘Okay! I know what I want to do with the rest of my life. And that’s all I’ve ever done since.” 

Sidlow doesn’t perform outside of pit orchestras, but wears many hats at Rossi Music. He is technically the owner, although the music teachers “talk to me like they’re the boss,” Sidlow said. “But that’s the way I like it. I want this place to feel like everybody owns it. Then they appreciate it, they respect it. It’s theirs.”

The store provides lessons in guitar, piano, drums, mandolin, violin, viola, ukulele, banjo and more. Sidlow no longer teaches lessons himself because he finds the immediate gratification that kids seek inconsistent with music.

“The way kids perceive music has changed,” he said. “These books are all about ‘play piano now,’ ‘learn guitar in a flash.’ And they want to bypass all the steps. They bring in a song and say, ‘Here, I want to learn this.’ Hold it—you’re going to take 10 years of exercises to get up to be able to play this song.”

Although sometimes frustrated by the younger generation’s technological nature, Sidlow finds comfort in the consistency of music itself.

“We’re playing the same notes that Bach did 300 years ago,” Sidlow said passionately. “You’re still playing it the same way that he meant it to me. Any other industry has evolved. [Music] is still the same. And it will never change, that’s the neat thing about it. It will never get old.”

“The way that your brain processes it—it creates paths for you to do other things through. The brain has developed that much more through that practicing and other things in life that you do,” Sidlow said. “You’ve opened up new windows in your brain to see differently.”

Through his store, Sidlow has helped hundreds of young musicians open new windows