Avalon Music Academy of Holland

Music school runs in the family: my mother Ruth founded Avalon in 2004, and I grew up watching what a great teacher can do for a kid. I took over because I kept seeing the same thing she did: families in our community wanted quality music education for their kids: without long-term contracts, expensive semester minimums, or pressure, and most schools were offering the opposite. Avalon was built to be the friendly, flexible alternative: month-to-month lessons, qualified teachers, and a place where students actually want to show up. Twenty-two years later, over 1,200 students strong, that mission hasn't changed.

Families choose us because we make quality music education simple and pressure-free. Every lesson is a private one-on-one with a college-trained or professionally experienced teacher, in the Lakeshore's most technologically advanced lesson rooms, fully stocked with real instruments and amps. We're month-to-month with no long-term contracts or semester minimums, scheduling is flexible six days a week, and parents can watch every lesson from our observation-window lounge. Students get free recitals, monthly open mics, and a Musical Achievement System that gives them visible goals to work toward, like karate belts for music. With over 1,200+ students and 22+ years in the community, families trust us to treat their kids like our own.

Yes, students can take lessons with us online via Zoom, Skype, or FaceTime with the same teachers they'd see in person. We offer virtual lessons at your normally scheduled time or a personalized video lesson: if a student can't make it in (or can't make it at all), their teacher posts a detailed lesson with video, text, and attachments to the student's online journal so they never fall behind. It's been a great option for busy families, snowbirds, students out of town, and anyone with a crazy week. Same tuition, same teacher, same quality, just from wherever you are.

We moved every student seamlessly to online lessons via Zoom, Skype, or FaceTime during lockdowns, with teachers posting personalized video lessons to student journals so nobody lost progress. As we reopened, we spaced out lesson rooms and schedules, installed in-duct LED air purifiers, upgraded our cleaning and disinfecting of all shared equipment between lessons, limited lobby capacity, and made masks and hand sanitizer readily available. And we kept our flexible virtual options in place permanently. Families who prefer online lessons can stay online for as long as they like. Safety measures can flex with health guidance, but the one-on-one quality of every lesson hasn't changed.