The History of Allied Music
The owners of Allied Music, Mark and Eric Bilger, are lifelong residents of Temperance MI in Bedford Township, just 4 miles over the state line from Toledo. Those of you in Bedford know that we are considered a "bedroom community" because many here work in Toledo and sleep in Michigan. That's no different for the Bilger brothers. Their father, Hal Bilger, was a musician of the Big Band Era and played piano, organ, vibes, and xylophone in Ohio until a ripe old age. He also worked in organ and piano stores in downtown Toledo from 1953 until 1983. Mark and Eric spent many hours learning about pianos and the music business as kids - roaming around those stores and also taking piano lessons for many years.
Mark started school band as a drummer in 5th grade at Bedford Schools and excelled to the point of playing with the high school marching band for a "Homecoming" parade while only in 8th grade, and then playing drumset for virtually all the specialty niche bands in high school such as Pep Band, Jazz Band, Dixieland Band, Stage Band, and many others. This was all while also playing in a rock band that performed locally for most Bedford after-school functions and dances plus "Battle Of The Bands" competitions at other area schools. Many cadences and roll-offs that Bedford High School's band used from 1969 to 1978 were Mark's creations.
When a rock band he was in needed a bass player and there wasn't one but there were three drummers available, Mark switched over to bass guitar because of his piano background and started a career of professional musicianship in the Ohio-Michigan bi-state area with some minor regional traveling. Through the clinics being held in Toledo by Rick's Drum Shop, Mark was able to play with 4 or 5 major national artist drummers and enjoy their friendship. Along with working in music stores of the Toledo area such as Ron's Music and Peeler Music among others, Mark had his hands in music retailing, music performance, recording engineering and producing, sound system operation and installations, national music magazine column authorship, and more.
After 36 years of diverse experiences in the world of music the opportunity to own a school band instrument store became available through Yamaha Corporation and Allied Music was founded in June 2004 at Olde Schoolhouse Commons in Lambertville. By 2005 the store had outgrown the room available there and moved to 9056 Lewis Avenue in Temperance - in the same building with Charles Holmes Music Company. Holmes had been at that location since 1974 but he wanted to retire while making sure that the southeastern Michigan area would still be serviced by a local store owned by local residents.
With Holmes Music on one end of the building and Allied Music on the other in downtown Temperance, customers of the area were fully serviced with no need to go outside of their home community. As the next few years went on, Mr. Holmes slowed his business, stopped renting instruments, and just maintained/repaired instruments for his current customers. By October 2007, he decided it was time to close down and retire. Holmes Music Company, Inc. closed its doors on November 30, 2007. By this time, Allied Music was firmly implanted in the southeastern Michigan market and could supply everything: rentals, sales, accessories, reeds, repairs, and school instrument maintenance for the surrounding community school systems and students. Mr. Holmes now enjoys retired life with his wife and stays active by reading very in-depth books about philosophy, world religions, and politics.
Mark's younger brother Eric started school band as a drummer in 5th grade as well, although he also had an interest in brass instruments which waned before 6th grade. Eric became first chair drummer quickly and played drumset throughout school. After graduation Eric went on to get his Bachelor's Degree in Music Performance from the University of Toledo, play in the Toledo Symphony Orchestra, the Toledo Zoo band, and a group featuring a UT visiting Professor on piano, a BGSU violin Professor on violin, and Eric on drumset and various "world" percussion instruments. That group did a recording that was heard on PBS radio stations nationwide for several years. The group also traveled to various states around the country for performances of ecclectic original jazz material written by the pianist.
Eric also has played professionally in rock groups, society wedding reception bands, polka groups, and other types of music for more than 20 years. One of his favorites was a combination of college professors and fellow college percussionists from the Toledo-Detroit area who formed a highly-acclaimed percussion group to do special performances for schools and other institutions in the bi-state area.
During this time, Eric became a private percussion teacher in his home and at Peeler Drum Center in south Toledo. Eventually he moved from drum teacher at Peeler Drum Center to sales then to Assistant Manager and finally Manager of the Drum Center. He phased out of his private teaching because of the enormous managerial responsibility. Under his management the drum shop grew 450% but because of a downturn in the guitar marketplace, mostly caused by heavy competition from Mars Music in Holland OH before they declared backruptcy, and then Guitar Center which is still in Holland OH, Peeler Music was forced to close its doors in May 2008.
Through a special agreement between Eric and Mr. Peeler, Eric retained the remaining inventory of the Peeler Drum Center, rented the whole building where Peeler Music had formerly been located, and started our second store, Allied Music of Ohio, Inc. in June 2008 after completely refurbishing the interior into a whole new establishment.
Through the acquisition of the Perrysburg School of Music, Allied Music of Ohio took on more than a half dozen new teachers. Three more new teachers were also added, and the four guitar teachers and two drum teachers formerly teaching at Peeler Music also were retained. Allied Music of Ohio now has a full-line music school within it with all professional teachers instructing in classical, jazz, rock, and most any other genre of music. The store also carries brand-name band instruments for rent-to-own or purchase just like the Temperance store does. Both stores carry a nice selection of beginner guitars, strings, accessories, and other music necessities. The south Toledo store carries drumsets although a drumset can be transferred to the Michigan store for those who don't want to drive across town.
Today Allied Music is firmly rooted in Temperance for Michigan and West End Toledo customers, as well as at the intersection of Heatherdowns and Byrne in South Toledo for all customers of northwest Ohio.
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