SOUND SERVICE

Chris Pickering was just a kindergartner when he discovered the restorative power of music in his family’s living room in Evanston.

He had come upon his mother, Linda, who was resting and listening to Handel’s Messiah after work. The melodious large-scale work was working its magic right before his eyes.

“Her eyes were closed,” Pickering, 57, recalls. “Mom looked relaxed and happy, all because of the soothing music.

“I’ll never forget the moment.”

Years later, Linda accompanied her son to a local store, where he picked out his first two albums—both by The Beach Boys.

“My first stereo system was a Panasonic boom box connected to a Sony turntable,” says Pickering, whose all-over-the-place taste in music today ranges from punk to chamber music to jazz. “My speakers were Panasonic thrusters.”

His current passion project? It’s audio-centric, unsurprisingly. Seeking music to bring joy, to relax, to relieve stress, or to spark your episodic memory hasn’t decreased a decibel since Pickering’s milk-and-cookies days as a perceptive kindergartner. Born in Cleveland and still living in Evanston, the father of three and former business-to-business marketing executive has been president of Curated Audio in Skokie since March 2023.

Its tagline is “It’s Time For Extraordinary Sound.”

“We want to be your trusted guide and find the best match of equipment for you and install it properly so you get the sound quality and personalized music experience you want in your home for years to come,” says Pickering, a Loyola Academy alumnus who, during his undergraduate (Ohio State University, Class of 1990) and MBA (University of Illinois Chicago) years, worked for the hardworking, inimitable Simon Zreczny at Evanston-based Audio Consultants, which emphasized customer service first, second, and third during its resoundingly successful run from 1967-2019.

Audio Consultants on Davis Street was the go-to store for North Shore audiophiles for more than 50 years.

“The wonderful relationships the staff built with customers there lasted for decades,” Pickering notes. “We all bonded over our shared love of music. Some of the people I met there now work for Curated Audio. This is what we’re trying to recreate in You could call our concept of service, in today’s online-heavy landscape, a throwback. What we do is rare. What customers receive from us is a fusion of personalized service and the best technology.”

Each of Pickering’s staffers, or music concierges, at Curated Audio has at least 25 years of experience in the field and an immeasurable passion for music. Their commitment to white-glove service—high-level care and attention to detail—is unflagging.

Curated Audio personnel recently made six visits to the abode of a couple interested in purchasing a system that would allow them to feel, while listening to music at home, as if they were nestled in seventh-row seats for a Chicago Symphony Orchestra concert.

Six visits?

Pickering’s team wanted to get it just right, to please the Mr. and Mrs., to essentially set up a CSO-esque sound system in their home.

“They say the seventh row, center (at Orchestra Hall), is the sweet spot for listening there,” Pickering says. “That couple needed to replace a 25-year-old sound system. We learned a lot, working with them and discovering what they valued as people who truly appreciate music. We got better through that journey.

“And we got to know nice people along the way.”

As a Journalism major at Ohio State University in the late 1980s, Pickering got acquainted with 60 Minutes correspondent Diane Sawyer while working on an assignment— craft an obituary on Sawyer’s colleague Mike Wallace, who was alive and well at the time.

“I called CBS in New York and asked to speak with Diane,” says Pickering, who minored in Economics. “I left a message for her, and she called me back. You’ve seen her on TV; she’s smart. Well, she’s smarter off-camera. I told Diane what I was working on, and she could not have been more professional, answering my questions about Mike Wallace. My professor later asked me, ‘Did you really interview Diane Sawyer?’”

The enterprising Pickering—who had held jobs at a golf course (Westmoreland Country Club caddie), a bookstore, a warehouse, and a butcher shop as a teen—later served as a full-time employee at Audio Consultants while earning his MBA degree at UIC. His career in business-to-business marketing lasted 24 years, 18 of which were spent with a co-worker named … Linda Pickering.

“She was my colleague and business mentor, all while being my mom, my friend, and a grandmother,” says Chris, whose father, James, worked in educational marketing.

Among Chris Pickering’s many hobbies is cycling. He pedaled his bike across America with a group of 60-70 in 2003. In Texas a cyclist introduced him to his future wife, Holly. They got married a year later and have three children: James, 18, Thomas, 15, and Marilyn, 11.

Holly, a former special projects coordinator and director of resource development for Habitat for Humanity, is a member of the Maryville Foundation board of directors; the foundation champions and funds organizations that protect children and strengthen families. She’s also the director of development at The Academy at St. Joan of Arc in Evanston, where daughter Marilyn attends.

Chris Pickering serves on the board of Kids Above All, a Chicago-based nonprofit that ensures youth and young adults who have experienced abuse, neglect and homelessness have stable places to live.

And, somehow, he finds time to coach tackle football to fifth- and sixth-graders. Pickering had coached flag football for 11 years before opting last year to begin guiding youngsters in the helmet-and-pads version of the sport.

“I stress the importance of safety as a coach, making sure the players use the proper techniques in blocking and tackling,” Pickering says. “I also like to emphasize the elements of teamwork, a life skill. The ‘textbook’ happens to be football.”

Father, brother, husband, philanthropist, coach, businessman. Pickering relishes being all of them.

“Just trying to make the world a better place,” he says.

Sound approach, Mr. Pickering.

Sound approach.

Curated Audio is located at 8214 McCormick Boulevard in Skokie. Visit curatedaudio.com for more information.