Why We’re Here
The story behind the founding of Performance High
Studio founder Adrienne Osborn left a lucrative IT career in the mid-2000’s because she felt felt a call to work with people, instead of businesses.
She had graduated from Stanford with a B.S. in an interdisciplinary study called Science, Technology, and Society (with a focus on Computer Science) and worked in IT for a decade, but didn’t want to do it the rest of her life.
Adrienne on the right, probably planning bank websites. Fat HTML and Javascript books on the shelf. Cubicle city, 1997.
After her B2B company closed their Boulder office in 2006, she remembered that she had always liked to sing – in fact, she was in an a cappella group in school, called Counterpoint. So she started taking voice lessons.
But she couldn’t find anyone local who respected popular music and was an effective vocal coach… so she started digging in to every vocal resource she could find, and started teaching herself.
Counterpoint, Stanford’s all-women a cappella group, 1992
Soon, she started giving a next-door neighbor voice lessons. She ultimately found the International Voice Teachers of Mix and got accredited as a vocal coach.
She joined and started bands, but didn’t have the first clue about how to run sound, use a microphone, meet musicians, write a song, run a show, perform, record in the studio, or literally anything else.
It was an expensive trial by fire – but worked as a real-world education.
Learning to be cool. Pink AND bleached hair. Leather jacket. Studded belt. Of course.
But she loved seeing her vocal students literally stand taller as they achieved something new – especially after thrilling peak experiences, such as performing on stage. That high would persist for days, so she named the studio “Performance High.”
As word spread and her studio grew to include additional teachers, she was fierce about giving employees respect and generous pay. Her vision was to build a rare music school where talented and experienced coaches who could have their own studios, chose to work. This way, a hand-picked group of top-notch talent could offer clients more opportunities, more growth, and better results while focusing on their passion of teaching instead of marketing their services.
The first two teachers Adrienne hired are still with Performance High today, for 11 years and for 14 years, as of 2025.
She built Performance High into a place where people who aren’t yet musicians can become them. Where they can learn all those things she didn’t know when she started out.
Adrienne getting that performance high at the Gothic Theatre, after learning to play the bass starting at age 37
This local, woman-owned, non-franchised studio with a naturally ingrained culture of respect, trust, and inclusion has become a highly sought after place by both employees and clients. People of all ages, all ability levels, and with all types of musical goals thrive at Performance High.
It all comes back around to making a better place for everyone – clients, employees, and everyone whose lives they touch. Whether it’s facing the fear of singing in front of people, drilling a new skill, or digging deep to figure out who we really are as artists and people, music challenges us to look inward, deal with fears and obstacles, and ultimately become better people.
Better people make a better world.
Will you join us?
