Recording Studio & On-Stage Performance Training in Asheville, NC & Online
Work with a Vocal Performance Coach & Bring Your Songs to the Stage!
What You'll Learn in Our Studio & Stage Performance Training
Singing a song well and performing a song well are two different skills — and the second one rarely gets taught. Some students come to stage performance training because they are preparing for a specific show, open mic, audition, a recording session or a booked gig. Others sing beautifully at home or in lessons but freeze up, stiffen, or disappear inside themselves the moment an audience appears.
During training sessions, you may work on microphone technique, stage presence, movement, song delivery, and connecting with an audience. You may also explore working with a sound system and monitors, structuring a set, handling mistakes gracefully, engaging between songs, and staying emotionally present while you perform. The goal is to make performing feel less like surviving and more like expressing.
You may learn how to:
Use a microphone and professional sound system with confidence
Stand, move, and gesture naturally on stage
Deliver a song's story and emotion, not just its notes
Connect with an audience instead of performing at them
Handle nerves, mistakes, and surprises without losing the moment
Talk between songs and shape the flow of a set
Rehearse in a way that actually prepares you for the stage
Adapt your technique for live sound, monitors, and rooms
Develop a stage presence that feels authentically yours
Prepare for open mics, gigs, showcases, auditions, and recordings
Why You Should Say Yes to Studio & Stage Performance Training
Performing Is a Skill of Its Own — So Train It
Most singers spend years on vocal technique and almost no time practicing performance itself. Then the stakes arrive: the lights, the mic, the faces watching. Stage performance training treats performing as its own craft, with skills you can rehearse deliberately — presence, delivery, movement, recovery — instead of hoping they show up on the night.
Working with a vocal performance coach means every part of your performance gets attention, not just your sound. Your coach can watch a full run of your song or set, notice where the energy drops or the connection breaks, and help you shape a performance that lands the way you intend.
Real Equipment, Real Rehearsal, Real Feedback
At our Asheville studio, you can train with a microphone and professional sound system — the same tools you will face at a venue. Mic technique alone changes how singers sound live: distance, angle, handling, and how you move with it all affect what the audience hears. Practicing with real gear takes the mystery out of it.
You can also use sessions as true performance rehearsal: running your set top to bottom, practicing your entrances and transitions, and performing for your coach as a live audience. By the time the actual show arrives, you have already done the hard part — many times, with feedback.
Presence Over Perfection
A memorable performance is not a flawless one. It is one where the audience feels something real. That is why our vocal performance coaching works on presence as much as polish: staying in your body, staying connected to the song's meaning, and letting people see you rather than a guarded version of you.
For many students, this is where performance training overlaps with deeper personal work — confidence, vulnerability, and the courage to be seen. Whatever brings you to the stage, the aim is the same: a performance that feels grounded and alive to you, and genuinely moving to the people watching.
Get Started on Your Journey Today!
Click the button below to contact us and take the first step towards your next performance!
True Voice offers private training with a professional vocal performance coach from our studios in Asheville, NC, online using Zoom or a combination of both. Our sessions are offered weekly in rate options of 30min, 45min or 1 hour lessons as a monthly subscription or as single lessons. Our coaches welcome all ages and all levels of musicianship and performance experience.
Our Singing & Performance Programs
-
Work with an instructor in a supportive Asheville studio environment. In-person lessons offer focused vocal coaching, room to explore sound, somatic awareness, and personalized guidance for technique, performance, breath support, creativity, and confidence. Explore our Sing Club performance and/or creative expression workshops to take your voice a step forward in freedom to do whatever you are drawn to!
-
Our online and hybrid voice lessons offer flexible support for students who want consistent vocal coaching, performance guidance, and creative development without needing to be in the Asheville studio every week.
-
There is nothing like the feeling of the vibrations of harmonic blend. Build confidence in holding your harmonic part while listening and responding to other voices. Harmony lessons can support couples, families, small groups, full bands, and individual singers who want to better understand intervals, harmonic improvisation and spontaneous blend.
-
Develop a freer, more grounded and more expressive speaking voice. Our supportive approach to sharing your voice in any medium can give you the tools you need for confidence in auditions, presentations, the theatre, monologues, storytelling, public speaking, or everyday communication.
-
Learn practical ways to work with nervousness before auditions, performances, presentations, or other high-pressure situations. Sessions may combine preparation strategies, breath and body (somatic) awareness, reframing, and gradual exposure to public performances to help performance anxiety feel more manageable. Explore our Sing Club performance and/or creative expression workshops to take your voice a step forward in freedom to do whatever you are drawn to!
-
Explore the relationship between your voice, body, emotions, and nervous system through gentle, voice-centered practices. Gaining awareness of the somatic connection with voice may be especially supportive for people who feel blocked, disconnected, tense, or self-conscious when singing or speaking.
Who Else We Work Best With
-
Young singers can build healthy habits, musical confidence, and a stronger understanding of their voices in age-appropriate sessions. Lessons may include favorite songs, vocal exercises, performance preparation, creativity, and guidance for practicing without strain. AND some songwriting guidance if that is a focus.
-
Online voice lessons can support adults who are beginning, returning to music, pursuing professional goals, or simply looking for a meaningful creative practice. Lessons are adapted to your experience, interests, schedule, and inspiration for wanting to sing.
-
Couples and families can use singing lessons to build confidence, learn harmony, prepare meaningful songs, or just to create a shared musical practice. Sessions can be adapted for different ages, experience levels, and reasons for wanting to sing together.
-
You do not need previous training, music-reading skills, a large vocal range, or confidence performing in front of others. Beginners receive clear, encouraging guidance that helps them understand the basics while making room for curiosity and gradual growth. And the opportunity to sing on stage if that is a desire.
-
Groups and bands can work on blend, harmony, arrangement, communication, performance, and the vocal demands of shared music-making. Coaching can be tailored to a specific song, upcoming performance, rehearsal challenge, or broader group goal.
-
Singers, musicians, actors, teachers, speakers, and other professional voice users can receive targeted support for demanding schedules and specific performance needs. Lessons may focus on stamina, consistency, recovery, preparation, expression, healthy voice practices, somatic breath and awareness or sustainable vocal use.
-
Prepare songs and audition material with attention to vocal technique, storytelling, character, phrasing, and performance choices. Coaching can support both virtual and in-person auditions, rehearsals, callbacks, and role preparation. Our musical theatre coach can help you with it all!
What Our Performance Training Students Are Saying:
Meet Your Vocal Performance Coaches!
Virginia Drake is a vocal coach, professional singer~songwriter, musician, performance coach, and the founder of True Voice Lessons in Asheville, NC. After years of formal study in musical theater and voice, she went on to perform as a jazz vocalist, indie folk singer-songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist across multiple genres. Her teaching blends practical vocal technique with mind-body awareness, confidence-building, and the opportunity to perform in her student Sing Club workshops and local music venues! Virginia brings warmth, experience, and a deep love of singing into every lesson, helping students find a voice that feels strong, expressive, and authentically their own.
Virginia Drake
Graciela Serena is a professional singer-songwriter, vocal mentor, expression coach, and performer whose work blends music, embodied practice, and emotional truth. As an artist, she creates bluesy pop-rock music with raw, soulful vocals and lyrics rooted in vulnerability, empowerment, and self-expression. In her coaching, Graciela helps students reconnect with the voice beneath fear, conditioning, and self-consciousness. Her lessons support singers and speakers who want to build confidence, express themselves more freely, and feel more at home in their voice.
Graciela Serena
Frequently Asked Questions About Our Studio & Stage Performance Training
-
A vocal performance coach helps you develop everything that happens beyond the notes: stage presence, microphone technique, movement, song interpretation, audience connection, and the mental skills of performing under pressure. Where a voice teacher builds your instrument, a performance coach helps you use it in front of people.
At True Voice, the two naturally blend. Your coach can strengthen technique where it affects your performance — breath under adrenaline, projection over a band — while shaping the delivery, emotion, and confidence that turn a well-sung song into a moving one. Sessions are built around your material and your upcoming performances.
-
Voice lessons focus primarily on your instrument: breath, tone, pitch, range, and vocal health. Stage performance training focuses on the full experience of performing: how you enter, stand, move, hold a mic, deliver a song's story, engage an audience, and recover when something unexpected happens.
Many students combine the two, using voice lessons to build technique and performance training to prepare for shows. Others come specifically for performance work because their singing is already solid but their live performances don't yet reflect it. Your coach can help you find the balance that fits your goals.
-
Yes. Much of stage fright comes from unfamiliarity — your body treating the stage as a threat because it has rarely been there. Performance training reduces that unfamiliarity systematically: you rehearse the real experience, with a mic, an audience of one, and honest feedback, until the situation your nerves fear becomes a situation you know.
You will also build practical tools for the moments nerves spike anyway: breath strategies, grounding techniques, and ways to recover mid-song without spiraling. For students whose anxiety feels bigger than preparation alone can address, True Voice also offers dedicated performance anxiety coaching that pairs well with this training.
-
Absolutely. You do not need any performance experience to start — many students come specifically because they have never performed and want their first time to go well. Training can begin as small as singing a song standing up, facing your coach, and grow from there at a pace that stretches you without overwhelming you.
First-time performers often make the fastest visible progress, because every skill is new: how to hold a mic, where to look, what to do with your hands. Building those fundamentals early means your first open mic or showcase starts from preparation, not guesswork.
-
Yes — that is one of the most common reasons students book performance training. Your coach can help you choose material, structure your set, rehearse transitions and stage banter, refine your delivery song by song, and run full performances under realistic conditions. Sessions can be scheduled to build toward your date.
Students have used this training to prepare for open mics, band gigs, showcases, weddings, auditions, competitions, recording sessions, and community events. If you have something on the calendar — or want help getting something on the calendar — that goal becomes the center of the work.
-
Yes, with an honest caveat: some elements translate better online than others. Song delivery, interpretation, presence, movement, set planning, and camera performance all work well over Zoom — and for anyone performing on livestreams or video, online training is the perfect medium. Hands-on microphone and sound system work is strongest in person.
Many students choose a hybrid rhythm: regular online sessions for delivery and interpretation, plus in-studio sessions for mic technique and full rehearsal runs. If you are outside the Asheville area, your coach can adapt the training fully online and help you make the most of your local setup.
Studio & Stage Performance Training: Prices & Packages
True Voice offers vocal performance coaching in several formats so students can choose the level of support that fits their goals and timeline. Session options may include 30-minute, 45-minute, or 1-hour private sessions, with ongoing weekly options available through monthly subscriptions. Single sessions may also be available for students preparing for a specific show, audition, or event.
Pricing can vary based on session length, frequency, coach, and the type of support you are looking for. If you are new to True Voice, the best first step is to reach out and share a little about your goals and any upcoming performances. From there, we can help you choose the format that makes the most sense for your voice, your schedule, and your next step onto the stage.
Get Started on Your Journey Today!
Click the button below to contact us and take the first step towards your next performance!
True Voice offers private training with a professional vocal performance coach from our studios in Asheville, NC, online using Zoom or a combination of both. Our sessions are offered weekly in rate options of 30min, 45min or 1 hour lessons as a monthly subscription or as single lessons. Our coaches welcome all ages and all levels of musicianship and performance experience.