The Voice Studios of Eleonor England, a NYC-based vocal studio, was founded in 1999 in San Francisco. Initially, my voice studio catered to students seeking one-on-one singing and speaking lessons. I continued teaching private lessons across California–in Hollywood, San Francisco, and San Diego–weekly until 2015. Some notable students I worked with during that time were recording artist, Aeode who went on to be GRAMMY-nominated; Universal Studios international super-star music artist, Prudence Liew, who prepared with me for her comeback concert that sold out two shows in the Hong Kong Coliseum (her current body of work includes being a multi-Platinum selling recording artist and lauded actor); and recording artist Tracy Johnson who went on to win or be nominated and/or win at the San Diego Music Award and LA Music Awards winner and multi-nominee, Tracy Johnson.

As my practice grew, I wanted to open a studio in New York City; it was the logical next step in my career as a teacher and performer, as I am also an accomplished jazz vocalist. I reached a point in my career at which I attracted students through my reputation as a voice teacher and performer, and NYC clients were so respectful and appreciative. I loved that! New York CIty was the place I could grow, not only as a performer and teacher, but also as a studio head and owner.

And grow we did–in 2015, I opened Singing Lessons NYC® by Eleonor England in Midtown Manhattan. Midtown is one of the most competitive markets for voice training in the world, and I quickly reached my capacity, teaching private lessons over 50 hours a week. It was time to hire an associate teacher, and I knew expanding the studio by adding more teachers could benefit my clients because of accessibility through expanded timeslots, affordable pricing, and varied teaching styles. Our mission statement is as follows:

To change the industry and accessibility, the way teachers are treated, and the way students are treated through pricing; salaries; benefits for employees; and genuine respect for students, faculty, and staff.

Hiring other teachers was initially an experiment to see if the mission statement was commercially viable. Many people in the industry informed me it was not.

To service the mission statement, I was dedicated to building a studio that paid teachers a superior rate through a W-2, offering benefits including medical insurance; student loan repayment help; and paid time off for holidays, vacation, sick leave, and–as of June 2022—profit-sharing .

At the Voice Studios of Eleonor England and its subsidiaries (Singing Lessons NYC® (Insert link frombelow w one * by it.  Delete this comment when done), Singing Lessons San Diego™ (Insert link frombelow w two * by it.  Delete this comment when done), Singing Lessons San Francisco™ (Insert link from below w 3 * by it.  Delete this comment when done), and Singing Lessons Nashville™ (Insert link below w 4 * by it.  Delete this comment when done), we rely on hiring top talent with what another studio owner called “unprecedented” starting wages and benefits on a W-2 (this means the employer pays half the employee’s FICA taxes plus insurance); we rely on getting access to highly talented individuals by building a company culture of mutual respect and prosperity that goes farther than having an air hockey table and video games. A friend of mine who is a GRAMMY-winning drummer told me that the highest pay he received from a teaching studio was about 33% less than our entry-level teacher wage and came with no benefits at all. I wanted to show that a studio could be profitable by valuing teachers with respect, proper compensation (ie: above current market rate), and a psychically and physically healthy work environment.

Many singing students end up being emotionally and/or psychologically abused by their teachers when their teachers become frustrated with their inability to teach. There are many reasons why a student may not progress. So I hired associate teachers who were not only top-tier teachers, but also had strong emotional intelligence. I believed that the better we treated teachers, the better they would treat the students – and that this could change industry practices, offer competition, and better the lives of everyone involved.

After a few false starts, I got our hiring right and was lucky to hire these amazing hires:

• Dr. Felix Graham (he/him), a trans masculine educator who holds four music degrees including a Bachelor’s, a Masters, as well another Master’s and a Doctorate from Columbia University in vocal pedagogy–the art and science of teaching singing. He’s also the director of TRANScend, a gender-inclusive choir in NYC.
• Taylor Masamitsu (he/him), who also earned a Master’s degree in vocal pedagogy from Columbia as well as an advanced certificate in opera, a Masters in social justice, and is in currently working on a PhD in how to make education more Asian-inclusive. He is also a founder of Creating For Justice, a non-profit dedicated to accessibility in education for Asian and Asian-American students that is providing funding for social justice non-profits.
• Laura Kay (she/her) is another voice teacher/performer who holds a two-year advanced certificate in vocal pedagogy from New York University (NYU) and is in process of completing a PhD in voice performance.
• Dr. Joseph Han (he/him) at Singing Lessons San Diego, who has a PhD in vocal performance as well an advanced certificate in vocal pedagogy from Westminster Choir College. He’s originaally from Kore and is an amazing teacher and singer.
• Dana Pirzchalski (she/her) is teaching voice for us at Singing Lessons Nashville who holds a Bachelor’s in Vocal Performance as well as a Master’s degree in vocal pedagogy from Belmont University in Nashville and is a singer-songwriter regularly performing in Nashville.
• Josaphat Contreras (he/his), a 1st generation Mexican American tenor and voice teacher with a Bachelor’s in vocal performance and a Masters in vocal pedagogy from New England Conservatory of Music. Josaphat teaches classical, contemporary, and Mariachi singing. He’s bilingual Spanish/English and teaches out of NYC.
• David Lin (he/him) who teaches songwriting and music production and who grew up between the US and mainland China and graduated from Berklee School of Music in Boston cum laude in music production. He’s a production wiz and his students produce radio-ready work.

We have a special program in our trans voice studio for transgender, gender non-conforming, and gender non-binary clients headed by Dr. Felix. In our general program, we guide our students in technique and in singing diverse vocal stylings including Rock, R&B, Jazz, Blues, Musical Theater, Cabaret, and every other non-classical genres including pop for the US, Chinese, and K-Pop markets.

We have a diverse staff regarding race, gender, and sexuality. We wanted to do that because the highly diverse clientele deserved it. We feel this is important because many other studios in Midtown hire a staff that is much more homogenous.

In addition to a strong client base in New York, the studio also has online students across the globe from Africa to Asia as well as the Americas and operates for in-studio lessons in four major United States cities including New York, San Francisco, San Diego, and Nashville.

Our clientele is also extremely diverse as approximately half of our students are BIPOC and about one in 10 of our students are trans, gender nonconforming, or non-binary. This occurred through word of mouth from Asian and Asian American students who had celebrity status and through hiring diverse teachers, including Dr Felix who is a published researcher and has first-hand experience about voice changes due to hormones that affect the voice. Hiring a diverse staff and faculty was important to the development of our diverse clients. This diversity has become part of our brand.

For many businesses, COVID-19 made hiring more challenging. Many business owners complained about not being able to hire people as easily as before Covid. It has also been a little more difficult for us, despite the culture and compensation we offer. Normally, it takes a while to find a brilliant person with a vocal pedagogy degree who also has a high EQ (emotional quotient). And while it has been more difficult to hire because of Covid, I evaluated the company’s hiring and compensation processes during this time, and added profit-sharing and applicants became easier to find.

The era of Covid, along with its significant difficulties, represents an opportunity to business. The business world–and perhaps especially the music industry–has long been underpaying individuals while record-breaking profits are being made. I think it behooves employers to treat employees as more than just money-making cogs in a machine. Employees are our business partners. Many jobs in the US pay under what one might consider a comfortable living wage. I can understand a business not having a lot of money when they start out, but once profits come in, I believe that business owners should pay their employees a living wage. We determine that a livable wage is should be calculated using this formula: [(the cost of an entry-level studio or 1 bedroom apartment within a short commute to work)] x 40. This links appropriate pay to housing. Many landlords in NYC require tenants to make their monthly rent x 40 annually before they offer a lease. Therefore, the effective NYC minimum wage is $22-25/hour.

Setting lesson prices appropriately means making sure the company will profit as well as the teachers, and that is a good thing for everyone. Minimum wage should be given for an entry-level administration position. However, voice teachers have spent a lot of money and time getting advanced degrees and other trainings that we require. People who make more money can afford spend more money through services and other living costs, and therefore, paying employees a higher wage is good for business and the community. It may take a while to reach the most appropriate lesson rate, but ultimately paying teachers well will lead to retaining great people. Not moving toward this will may result in businesses being out-competed by those who offer a true livable wage.

I know a lot of people hesitate to raise lesson rates, even a little. But, if a company is not raising prices to reflect the increased cost of living, it will not be able to retain great people; and if you have great people doing an exceptional job, people will be willing to pay you more. To supply students with accessibly-priced lessons, our teachers spend up to a year in the $100/session range before we graduate them up to a rate more in keeping with their skills. If students continue with their teacher, they retain that rate with minimal pricing adjustments annually.

My advice to beginning businesses is to raise rates to pay for the things you need to for your employees to keep up with inflation. Raising some rates and and all salaries is an opportunity to set yourself above most of the other businesses in your industry. However, make sure you are adding value. Do not simply raise rates and offer the same quality of service and same pay for your employees. Pay it forward by compensating your employees and investing back into your business. Raising prices without adding value is good way to go out of business, build a bad reputation, and accrue terrible online reviews.

Raise rates on some services to subsidize employee pay raises and the lower-price points concurrently offered. Pay employees more. Deliver better services. And do not forget to tell your customers why some of the rates exist, because the public supports paying a livable wage. Two cases-in-point:

• The CEO of Gravity Payments announced he was lowering his take-home profits in favor of raising the minimum wage for full-time employees to $70,000 a year (which is $33.65 an hour, assuming a 40-hour work week). They were barraged with new business from new clients who support a living wage. There are other examples, too.
• Dick’s Burgers in Seattle, Washington raised their entry-level wage to $19-20 in the Seattle area from the $16.69 local minimum wage at the time in 2021. The writing is on the wall. If you’re an early adopter of paying livable wages, customers will hear about it and love it. If you’re a late adopter, people will remember that too.

Businesses need to put their money where their mouths are and pay at least a living wage to entry level administrative positions and generally higher wages for employees who’ve expended money on education to deliver superior results and products. By investing in your people and thereby offering a superior product, your businesses can thrive in the post-Covid economy.

These statements are what we base our business on. We are on track to make a 425% in annual revenue since we started enacting these policies 4 years ago. It’s my belief that the time when businesses gain record profits and do not share prosperity with their employees is coming to an end. The era of shared prosperity is dawning. And that, in addition to treating students with much more respect, is our message in the marketplace; it can be done, and it’s profitable.

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Please remove the asterisks here and in the essay and use these links:
* https://singing-lessons-NYC.eleonorengland.com/
** https://singing-lessons-nyc.eleonorengland.com/singing-lessons-san-diego
*** https://singing-lessons-nyc.eleonorengland.com/singing-lessons-san-francisco
**** https://singing-lessons-nashville.eleonorengland.com/