Pete Sargent, owner of Sargent Violin Shoppe, grew up in his grandfather's violin shop in Northeast Minneapolis where he first learned to make and, especially, to repair violins. Before his grandfather died in 1952, he made Pete promise to intern with another violin maker. Pete kept his promise, and in 1970 and 1971 he interned at the Robert Lazarus violin shop in St. Paul. Robert Lazarus specialized in rare instruments, and there Pete in contact there with some of the world's finest violins; within a year he was assigned to maintain them. It was at the Lazarus shop that he learned to make violins from expert lutheir Walter Weaver, who had previously owned a shop in the state of Washington.

Pete opened his first violin shop in 1971, and until 2011 he operated shops in Blaine and Moundsview, Minnesota. In 2011 he closed his shops and moved his operations to his home in St. Michael, Minnesota.

Along with selling violins, some of them which he makes personally, together with bows and accessories, Pete is also an accomplished violinist, and plays at a variety of venues in Minnesota. He attributes his inspiration to his former teacher, Clifton Jackson, who played with the Chicago Symphony and the Minneapolis Symphony (now the Minnesota Orchestra). In 2011, Pete was selected from among 500 musicians to perform with the Minnesota Orchestra at their annual fantasy camp.