Music store owners hit high and low notes on same day

February 20 was a memorable day for the Bertrand family, as they lost their original store in a fire and won a prestigious award.

“It was definitely a crazy day,” said Joel Bertrand, who, with his brothers John Jr. and Jeff, runs the company founded in 1983 by dad John Bertrand Sr. One of their four stores is in Poway.

The store in San Bernadino that started it all was destroyed at around 1 p.m. that day when a 94-year-old woman drove her vehicle through the front of the store, starting a fire. “We’re not sure what happened,” said Bertrand. “We can only speculate.”

Bertrand said his employees helped the woman from the vehicle and everyone escaped without injuries. The store, however, was almost completely destroyed, including all of its inventory. “It was a total loss, it burned all our inventory. The whole store went up in flames.”

The pain of that loss, however, was soothed by finding out on that same day that Bertrand’s Music had been awarded the state music industry award by the California Music Educators Association (CMEA). This award honors an organization for outstanding leadership in music education.

“(Finding out about the award) felt great,” said Bertrand. “Oftentimes, we don’t get recognized. We do so much in the community, including giving free music lessons and scholarships. It makes us feel good to be recognized.”

Bertrand said they were nominated by one of the school band leaders from the Poway Unified School District, but he didn’t know which one.

“The main reason we won was because of our work with music education,” said Bertrand. “Our main goal as a company is music education and music advocacy.”

John Bertrand Sr. was a school music director for 15 years before deciding to open his own music store in San Bernadino. Bertrand’s Music has paid honor to his years of music education by offering free music lessons to beginning band and orchestra students in the Poway Unified School District with its Summer Head Start program, providing scholarships and much more.

Bertrand’s Music now has four locations: in San Bernadino, Poway, in San Diego on Black Mountain Road, and in Mission Viejo.

“We’ve very focused on music education,” said Bertrand. “The performing arts are very important in a young person’s life to develop creativity, whether it’s art or music. Math can’t give you that creativity.”

Bertrand said they will be focusing on rebuilding their San Bernardino store, which is currently working out of a temporary location behind the damaged building. “We’re definitely going to rebuild,” said Bertrand. “Most likely in the same location. We’re going to clean up and rebuild.”