Seventy years ago, professional accordion player and teacher Richard Nowocien and his wife, Florence, opened a store in Black Rock.
On Dec. 30, their daughter Patti Bordonaro shut the door at what is now Paramount Music Center in the Town of Tonawanda for the last time.
“I’m not going to retire. I’m going to do something else,” said Bordonaro, 65, who has worked at Paramount since she was a teenager.
It’s the most recent example of upheaval among locally owned music stores in Buffalo Niagara.
Paramount follows Alder Creek Music, Al Hemer Music Store, the String Shoppe and Airport Music, among others, in closing in recent years. Owners blamed competition from online and big-box stores, the Covid-19 pandemic and shrinking membership in school and local bands as contributing factors.
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