About Us

The Leading Note opened in December 1999 and is located in downtown Ottawa. From the start, our goal has been to focus primarily on classical print music. In addition to stocking a large amount of the standard repertoire, we specialize in ordering music in very quickly (everything from more obscure repertoire to larger school, choral and orchestral orders). And we offer a very prompt and economical mail-out service.

Over the past few years, we have continued to expand both our in-store stock (in fact, we doubled our floor space in January 2004 by taking over the space next to us) and our customer base. We have quickly become the centre for classical print music in the area. Most of the local teachers, choirs and orchestras are now regular customers and we have an ever-growing number of out-of-town customers that we ship music to.

A somewhat unexpected area of focus for us has turned out to be in choral music. In addition to stocking the larger choral repertoire, we have developed an extensive choral octavo perusal library. And our choral/vocal room includes a keyboard that can be used by choral directors and singers to try out repertoire.

In addition to providing classical print music, we also actively promote local concerts, composers, artists, educational events, etc. We stock a large number of CDs by local musicians and are always happy to sell tickets for concerts put on by local groups