Wheaton, Maryland Chuck Levin’s Washington Music Center has been in business longer than drum department manager Darren Zentek has been alive—this year marks the store’s sixty-second. Levin’s was initially located in the District proper, before moving just north of the nation’s capitol to suburban Wheaton, Maryland, in 1968. For Zentek, who has played with artists involved with D.C.’s storied Dischord Records scene over the years, 2020 is his twenty-sixth year at the store. It’s a full-service operation, with guitars, keyboards, DJ and studio gear, school band rentals, and much more. But drums and percussion have always been a big driver among the pros, semi-pros, hobbyists, and beginners who frequent the shop. Zentek filled us in on his own journey to Chuck Levin’s, and gave some insight as to what makes his drum department tick. I worked at George’s House of Music up in State College, Pennsylvania, back in the early […]

July 2020 Issue