New ownership positions Avalon Music as hub for Wenatchee’s arts ecosystem

WENATCHEE — Avalon Music has changed hands for the first time in more than three decades, but its new owners are approaching the transition with a focus on continuity, growth, and a broader role in the region’s music scene.

Josh Hofstead and Alicia Clair took ownership of the Wenatchee music store on April 10, stepping into a business that has served as a hub for musicians across North Central Washington since 1992. For Hofstead, the decision came quickly after hearing the store might close.

“We can’t let that happen,” he said.

What followed was a months-long process with founder Steve Clem, who Hofstead said was less interested in a quick sale than in finding someone willing to carry the business forward with care.

“Stewardship is the right word,” Hofstead said.

That approach is shaping both the day-to-day operation of the store and its long-term direction. Avalon’s existing model, built on instrument sales, lessons, and a steady flow of musicians through its doors, will remain intact. Longtime staff, including LaVon Gamble, continue to provide continuity during the transition.

But the new owners are also looking beyond the traditional boundaries of a retail music shop.

“It’s almost as if selling instruments is incidental to supporting those things,” Hofstead said, pointing to community-building and music education as central to Avalon’s identity.

That identity already shows up in how the store functions. Musicians come in to buy strings or drumsticks, but they also stay. Students take lessons. Bands gather. Families bring in young players who are just getting started.

Clair said preserving that sense of belonging is non-negotiable.

“We want this to be a place where people feel like they belong,” she said.

At the same time, Hofstead and Clair are thinking about how the business can evolve to support something larger than retail alone.

Part of that strategy is growth beyond Wenatchee. Hofstead said expanding online sales will be key to reaching a wider customer base, creating revenue that can be reinvested locally.

“The wider audience that we can find online over time will allow us to do cool things here,” he said.

Those “cool things” include a renewed focus on live music and in-store events, an area that diminished during the pandemic and has yet to fully return. Avalon is already beginning to rebuild that side of the business, with an in-store performance by Jesse Sykes & the Sweet Hereafter scheduled for May 30.

The goal, both said, is not just to host occasional shows, but to reestablish Avalon as an active participant in the region’s music ecosystem. That could mean more performances in the store itself, as well as partnerships and support for other venues and events across the valley.

“There’s so much talent here,” Clair said. “The question is how do we help create more places for it to be seen and heard.”

That forward-looking approach also shapes how the owners are thinking about what fills the store.

Hofstead and Clair both return to the idea of “aspirational” inventory. Alongside entry-level instruments, they want to make space for higher-end pieces that customers may not be ready to buy, but can experience.

“I think you need aspirational inventory,” Hofstead said. “Things to drool over. Things that allow you to dream.”

For a younger musician, that might mean picking up a guitar well outside their price range and imagining what comes next. For the business, it means treating the retail floor as more than a place to move product.

Clair said that idea has become central to how they think about the store’s future.

“It’s not just about what you can buy today,” she said. “It’s about what inspires you to keep going.”

That philosophy carries into how they are considering the physical space itself. Over time, they said, the balance between inventory and open space may shift, allowing for more room to host events and create a setting where people are encouraged to stay.

It is a shift that depends on growth elsewhere. Expanding revenue through online sales and other channels could reduce the need to maximize every square foot for retail, freeing up space for performances, gatherings, and community use.

Asked what Avalon might look like a year from now, Hofstead pointed to that balance.

“It looks like a blend,” he said.

For a business with a long-established place in the community, that blend represents both continuity and change. Avalon remains a music store, but under new ownership it is also positioning itself as something more. A place that not only serves musicians, but helps shape where and how they are heard.

Andrew Simpson: 509-433-7626 or andrew@ward.media