I want to tell you something I don’t share enough.
I grew up on Long Island. Tough neighborhood. Shy kid. The kind of shy where walking into a room full of people felt genuinely hard. I was quiet, introverted, and I spent a lot of time by myself. But when I was alone I would hum. I would sing around the house when nobody was listening. Just me and whatever was playing in my head. I didn’t think much of it. It was just something I did.
My mother noticed.
This was before iPhones, before the internet, before any of that. She was reading a penny saver one afternoon, one of those little local papers that used to come in the mail, and she saw an ad. It said something like does your child love to sing? It was an announcement for the Singing Boys of Long Island, a preparatory boys choir. She looked at that ad and she thought about her little boy humming around the house and she signed me up.
I couldn’t sing on pitch.
I want you to really hear that. I was in a real choir, surrounded by boys who could actually sing, and I was struggling to match the notes. I was on the edge of being let go. By every measurable standard I wasn’t ready. I wasn’t there yet.
But the choir director saw something in me anyway. I don’t know exactly what he saw. Maybe potential. Maybe just a kid who genuinely loved to be there. Whatever it was he kept me around. And that decision, that one moment of someone choosing to believe in a child who wasn’t ready yet, changed the entire course of my life.
What Belief Does
I stayed in that choir. I worked. I grew. And the boy who almost got cut became a soloist in that same ensemble.
When I got to high school I auditioned for All-State chorus. Made it all four years. My senior year I stood in front of an audience as a soloist representing the state of Connecticut. And when it came time for college I earned a place at Carnegie Mellon University, one of the top musical theater programs in the country, on what was essentially a full scholarship. One of twelve students selected nationally that year.
None of that happens without a choir director who looked at a child who couldn’t match pitch and decided he was worth investing in.
I think about that a lot. I think about it every single time I work with a child who doesn’t believe in themselves yet. Because I know what it feels like to be that child. I know what it feels like to be on the edge of being told you’re not enough. And I know what it feels like when someone looks at you anyway and says I see something here.
That is my mission. It has been my mission for over 35 years. To affirm, to validate, and to call forth what is already inside every child who walks through our doors. Not to manufacture talent. To reveal it. To give it a place to grow.
What This Has to Do With Your Child
Here’s what I want Avon parents to understand.
Most activities we put our children in are built around measurable outcomes. Scores, rankings, wins and losses. There’s real value in that. But for children who are wired creatively, who feel things deeply, who express themselves through sound and movement and story, that framework can work against them. They spend so much energy trying to measure up that they never get to just be.
Performing arts works differently. The win here isn’t on a scoreboard. The win is showing up. Taking one step. Trying something that felt scary and discovering you could do it. For a child who has been waiting for a place where giving your best is genuinely enough, that realization changes everything.
The confidence that comes from that doesn’t stay on the stage. It walks with them into classrooms, into friendships, into every room they’ll enter for the rest of their lives. I’ve watched it happen hundreds of times. Children who arrived quiet and uncertain and left knowing something about themselves they didn’t know before. That’s not a small thing. That’s everything.
Our Connection to Avon
I’ve had the genuine privilege of working with some of Avon’s young performers this past season through private acting instruction and these kids are something special. Curious, ready, creative in ways that surprise you. Every session reminded me exactly why I’ve never wanted to do anything else.
This June something even bigger is happening in our community. Our Community Voices Youth Choir is performing an original song called “We Stand,” written specifically for the Avon and Farmington 250 Celebration. This is a once in a generation community event marking America’s 250th anniversary, taking place Friday June 26th at 99 Thompson Road in Avon. These young performers are going to be part of something historic. Something their families will talk about for years. That’s performing arts at its most meaningful. It’s not just a class. It’s a moment that belongs to them.
Two Ways to Get Started
At Performing Arts Programs we offer group acting classes for children in the Avon area. Warm, supportive, no experience required. Just a willingness to show up and try. That’s genuinely all we ask.
For students who are ready to go a little deeper, whether preparing for a school musical, working toward All-State chorus, or simply wanting focused one-on-one attention, I offer private coaching through Lamb Studios Online. Every lesson is with me personally, online via Zoom, from the comfort of your own home.
That convenience piece matters more than people realize. No driving across town after a long day. Your child sits down somewhere familiar and comfortable and we get to work together. I’ve had students earn acceptance into some of the most competitive performing arts conservatory programs in the country through exactly this kind of focused private work. It starts with one conversation and one lesson.
The trial lesson at Lamb Studios Online is $65, a 45 minute session with me personally. If your child decides to continue with weekly coaching within 30 days that $65 applies directly toward the first month. No risk. Just a real chance to experience what this work feels like before making any commitment.
Book a Trial Lesson →
One More Thing
You know what? I still hum. I still sing to myself around the house when nobody is listening. Some things never change.
The difference now is that I spend my days encouraging others to do the same. To be creative. To explore what’s inside them. To stop waiting for permission to take up space and make some noise.
It brings me more joy than I can describe. And I believe with everything I have that it can do the same for your child.
If you’d like to learn more about programs in Avon I’d love to hear from you. And if you want something meaningful to read right now, download the free parent guide below. I wrote it for the parent who is sitting exactly where you’re sitting, wondering if this might be the right thing for their child.
I think it just might be.
— Michael Lamb, Founder
Performing Arts Programs, Est. 1997