A cornucopia of music
Leon Berliner had to create his audience
by Barbara Clark

               You can find Leon Berliner almost anytime at his store, Berliner's Cornucopia. He's not too busy. The one Christmas he had a line-up waiting for the cash register, his wife dashed to grab his camera for a picture of the event.

               "Seventeen years ago when I decided to open a classical music store," Berliner said, "I realized I was naïve-there wasn't much of a market for classical music. I thought perhaps I should build my own market by teaching people something about it."

               Berliner, 66, launched his weekly music class then-the first year he scheduled only six months' worth of classes. "It wasn't enough time. There are too many composers," he said. The second year it became a year-long class.

               "I had read before I opened the store that only five percent of the American public had ever listened to a Beethoven symphony all the way through. So our class the second week in December is the third session of Beethoven. It meets at my house, and we listen to Beethoven's Ninth Symphony from beginning to end, in complete silence except for the crackling fireplace."

               Berliner said he spends the week playing the music of the composer he will feature at the next Tuesday night class. 

               He holds sign-ups during the summer. Last summer the 32 people who are taking his current series had all signed up three weeks in advance.

               "I have people from the first class who still come into the store," Berliner said. "One student who was just 25 when he took the class has recently turned 40. He asked for gift certificates from the store for his birthday, and got a $280 gift certificate.

               "I've got all ages taking the class, young adults, teenagers whose parents are home-schooling them. I've got one dog taking the class now. A lady who trains puppies for blind people is taking the class. He likes Mendelssohn."

               Upstairs in his store at 530 F Street in Eureka he has a small used bookstore, and he is proud that young people come there to listen to music and spend some time. He also teaches occasional history classes when teachers call on him. He is from Europe and as a Jew suffered the abuse of Nazi Germany. He spent three and a half years in concentration camps and a year and a half hiding in the south of France. His mother was killed at Auschwitz.

               Barbara Clark is editor of Senior News.