Robert Zatzman, music store owner

Robert M. Zatzman, 75, of Chestnut Hill, a music store owner who repaired string and reed instruments and gave music lessons to generations of students, died of heart failure Sunday at Chestnut Hill Lodge Health and Rehabilitation Center in Wyndmoor.

Mr. Zatzman grew up in New York City, where he studied guitar and music composition.

He served in the Army for two years in North Carolina and Kentucky. After his discharge, he moved to an apartment in a building his parents owned in West Mount Airy and began teaching music. He also gained a reputation as an expert repairer of instruments.

In 1982, he opened a music store in a building he owned on Germantown Avenue in Chestnut Hill. "Amplifiers and sheet music were stacked to the ceiling, the drum sets were always available for test drives," a reporter wrote when the store closed in 1997. "If you paid for three reeds for your sax, you'd always walk away with five."

Mr. Zatzman didn't leave the music business. He rented out the store and continued to sell accessories, make repairs, and give lessons in music theory and classical guitar in his apartment at the back of the building.

The lessons were good, cheap, and "usually last longer than the 30 minutes parents pay for - and end the second he sees a student yawn," the reporter wrote. He also let other teachers use his space.

Mr. Zatzman told a reporter in 1997 that he got up at 5:30 a.m. every morning to work on his fourth opera. When it was completed, he would probably throw it away, he said.

"I'm not that talented," he said. "If you're not making a living composing, you can do whatever you want and just have a good time."

Mr. Zatzman established a wide reputation, said his brother Jerry. Twenty years ago, when he was in the Florida Keys on vacation, he told a store clerk that he was from the Philadelphia area, but didn't mention his name. The clerk volunteered that he had spent "many happy hours in Bob Zatzman's music store."

Mr. Zatzman stopped teaching in recent years. Though his hands were crippled with carpal tunnel syndrome, he still made repairs to instruments with the help of apprentices, his brother said. He had a library of repair manuals and more than 800 books on music, art, and literature, his brother said.

Mr. Zatzman was a founding member of the Chestnut Hill Town Watch and continued to be active with the organization.

In addition to his brother, he is survived by brothers Marvin and David, two nieces, and two nephews.

Friends may call from 7 to 10 p.m. today at Jerry Zatzman's home in Elkins Park. A memorial service will be held Oct. 3 at a location to be determined. Mr. Zatzman donated his body to science.

Donations may be made to Settlement Music School, Box 63966, Philadelphia 19147.