PORTLAND - A Portland icon that's been at the heart of the city's music scene since the 1970s is eliminating its classical music store.
After more than three decades, the sounds of symphonies and arias within Music Millennium will soon be silent.
A smaller classical inventory will be moved into the main store. The current space will be used for an all vinyl outlet as that medium grows.
The "goodbye classical" sale begins next Wednesday and the store will close sometime in September. Owner Terry Currier said the audience for classical music is shrinking and the major labels are putting less emphasis on the genre.
Classical music accounts for just one to three percent of overall record sales.
“We really have been losing money on this store for a great deal of years,” Currier said. “We didn't want to turn it loose because it was like our baby, it was a piece of us.”
The store closed its outlet on Northwest 23rd in 2007.
KGW Reporter Joe Smith contributed to this report
