617 480 3661 Quincy MA Gas Station Viola Player Wanted

 https://www.bostonglobe.com/2026/03/07/arts/quincy-gas-strolling-violist/

Quincy Gas owner Harvey Kertzman hopes to bring a little music into his customers’ experiences at his gas pumps - a violist to serenade them as they filll their tanks.

 He has signs on all his pumps looking for a musician. Harvey Kertzman, who owns the independent gas station Quincy Gas, has long tried to offer his customers a more refreshing, revitalizing experience than one might normally expect at the pump.

 He gives out free bottled water, for example — “Not the small bottles. Pure 100 percent Poland Spring. I buy it by the pallet.” — and on whiteboards above every pump, he displays inspirational quotes by various philosophers and historical figures, selected by his wife Noreen.

 Now, he’s looking to elevate the experience even further by hiring a violist to play among the pumps while customers fill up. He is insistent on the viola, with its richness and emotive power. “It massages the heart of the person listening,” he says. “You can’t get that from any other instrument. And what better place to hear wonderful music than a gas station?” 

That might be a point that raises some eyebrows, but to Kertzman it makes perfect sense. He’s 77 now and has owned the station since 1978. In that time, he’s seen a lot of people come and go. And he has found that when customers drive up, they’re “all tensed up” because they’re about to spend their paycheck filling up their car, he said. “To hear such a mellow sound at a gas station, I think that would be unique.”

 Kertzman has spent most of his life around cars. He owned “the biggest Volkswagen dealership east of the Mississippi,” the now-defunct Kertzman’s in Quincy. There, he and a team of employees changed the engine of a VW Bug in 1 minute and 37 seconds, earning them a Guinness World Record for the fastest engine swap; the record was later surpassed.

 In 2003 he ran unsuccessfully for Quincy mayor. Before any of that, though, when he was a teenager in 1967, he toured Europe while singing bass in a local group, the Concordia Youth Chorale, directed by William Seymour, who later became president of the Boston Conservatory. 

The trip, which included stops in Austria, Switzerland, and Italy, was his first time leaving the United States. He later sang with the Newton Choral Society (now the Commonwealth Chorale) under David Carrier, but one day, he said, he woke up and could no longer carry a tune. “It happens sometimes,” he says."

Kertzman posed with an old newspaper clipping showing the last time he had a musician work his gas pumps. Kertzman posed with an old newspaper clipping showing the last time he had a musician work his gas pumps. Lane Turner/Globe Staff

Music and the effect it can have on people stayed with him, though, and he has brought it live music at the gas station before. 

”I did have someone play the guitar back in 2004, a guy named Steve Murphy.” He’s still in touch with Murphy, he said, but Murphy has arthritis now and can’t play, and what he really wanted in the first place was a viola.

 “My whole life I’ve been enamored with the old style,” he said. “Every old movie has a serenade in a restaurant. I’ve always wanted to do that, and now’s the time to do it.” So he stuck signs on the pumps at Quincy Gas: WANTED VIOLA PLAYER. it caught the attention of Boston sports podcast host Mike Emond, who posted a video on TikTok in which he read the ad aloud. “Quincy Gas! I mean, they’re really laying out the red carpet for the customers,” Emond says in the post.. Emond’s video got attention online, and Kertzman says he’s had a few violists call. 

But he won’t have music at the station just yet. “You can’t play a viola in 10 degree weather!” he says. “We’ll wait for a warm day in the spring, try it, and see what happens.”A.Z. Madonna can be reached at az.madonna@globe.com. Follow her @knitandlisten.