Skip Maggiora, whose Skip’s Music stores became a Sacramento touchstone, dies at 75
Arthur “Skip” Maggiora, who through the music stores that bear his name equipped top-tier professionals and embraced generations of aspiring musicians and countless weekend garage warriors in becoming a Sacramento music icon, has died.
Maggiora died Feb. 23, 2023, after a long battle with kidney disease, Skip’s Music announced in a Facebook post. He was 75.
Maggiora’s Skip’s Music, for decades a vital component of Sacramento’s music scene, has long been a haven for its players in rock, jazz and beyond. Skip’s Music, which has locations in Arden Arcade and Elk Grove, celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2023.
“With a career spanning more than 50 years, Skip is a local icon, leaving behind a legacy of contributions and achievements in the music industry and as a local business owner,” Skip’s Music’s vice president, Mike Snyder, said on Maggiora’s passing. “He was a visionary who always contemplated the next move. He established himself early as a dependable and reliable resource for the professional and hobbyist musician.”
For a half-century, Skip’s Music has been synonymous with capital music making.
“Skip was a remarkable leader, entrepreneur and friend. His absence will be felt internationally by his countless personal and professional relationships,” said Snyder.
Condolences flooded Skip’s Music’s Facebook page on the news of Maggiora’s death from across the music spectrum: seasoned touring pros and store owners, local legends and the legions of working musicians and garage-band dreamers who bought their first axe, drum set or mic at Skip’s.
“I consider him the father of Northern CA musicians,” keyboardist Val Dawang wrote. “I can’t think of anyone that put more instruments in musicians’ hands. I don’t cry much, but his loss really breaks my heart. Rest in peace Skip.”
Sacramento jazz vocalist and radio broadcaster Beth Duncan was just one whose trip to Skip’s helped set her on her musical journey: “As an aspiring singer, I bought my first mic from Skip in the late ’70s, and years later worked with him through the (Sacramento Jazz Festival). You made dreams come true for so many musicians,” Duncan wrote.
Michael Kenney, the Northern California-based bass technician and live keyboardist for Iron Maiden posted simply: “I don’t think that there is a musician in Northern California who doesn’t know the name Skip.”
A lifelong Sacramento resident, Arthur Maggiora, the man Sacramento and the national music community would forever come to know as “Skip,” grew up around music. He worked in a local music store and performed as part of a popular local rock act while working his way through college opening for Jimi Hendrix and psychedelic San Francisco rockers Big Brother and the Holding Company. Maggiora’s work on the bandstand and behind the scenes in concert production quickly cemented his musical reputation.
Maggiora opened his first store on Florin Road in Sacramento in 1973, moving Skip’s Music to its signature Auburn Boulevard location in 1980 just as Sacramento’s rock music scene was entering a fertile decade, with local acts Steel Breeze, Bourgeois Tagg and Tesla, along with guitarists Jeff Watson of Night Ranger and Dokken’s George Lynch, reaching national prominence.
A number of names reunited for an all-star bash at the Sacramento Music Festival in 2013 marking Skip’s Music’s 40th anniversary and its enduring impact on Sacramento’s music scene including Tesla guitarist and co-founder Frank Hannon, Watson of Night Ranger, Brad Lang of Y&T and Gene Smith of Kai Kln.
Maggiora’s two-story Arden Arcade showroom opened in 1980 as a treasure trove of guitars, drums, keyboards and gear; an essential destination for working musicians and amateurs alike. His drum and guitar clinics quickly became sought-after events routinely featuring the top players of the day sponsored by music’s iconic brands, Zildjian, Yamaha, Paiste and Pearl.
His dedication to music education and a near-evangelical zeal for spreading the joy of creating music and cultivating the next generation of musicians was evident in Skip’s Music’s two trademark programs: Stairway to Stardom, the summer-long music camp geared to young amateur musicians considering careers in music; and its Weekend Warriors program for adults ready to return to the music.
“Skip was always a man to be respected in the music business for his dedication to music education and filling the world with more musicians,” wrote Penny Kline, whose family owns and operates Sacramento’s long-valued Kline’s Music.
Maggiora was also a pioneering and enduring music entrepreneur as a founding member of the industry group the Alliance of Independent Music Merchants “bringing together the industry’s leading independent musical instrument retailers with select vendors for the benefit of music makers nationwide,” Skip’s Music said in its tribute post.
Plans continue to extend Skip’s Music and Maggiora’s legacy. Skip’s Music is renovating a 31,000-square-foot Sacramento location that will combine sales, instruction and rental services with a planned museum featuring Maggiora’s private collection of rare and notable instruments.
In a 2003 Sacramento Bee interview, an understated Maggiora summed up his role: “I just try to be there with what musicians need. It’s the next best thing to being a rock star.”
Maggiora is survived by a son, Creed Maggiora, and his partner, Melanie Reibin.
A celebration of life will be scheduled in the coming weeks. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the NAMM Foundation fund, of which Maggiora was fond.
This story was originally published February 28, 2023 at 8:09 AM.
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