[Fopbc] Blind Alumna (Michelle Lamm) Turns Dreams into a Reality

[Lenora Marten]

Blind Alumna Turns Dreams Into a Reality with Piano Tuning Business
Posted: 9/20/2011 in Academics
St. Augustine, Fla. (Sept. 20, 2011) – Eventually, she wanted to own her own business. With extraordinary ambition and a vision for success, an alumna of the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind turned her dreams into a reality despite her blindness since birth.
“Having a business is hard, but I’m getting used to it,” said Michelle Lamm when she visited Mr. L. Daniel Hutto, President of FSDB, for the first time since graduation.
She proudly showed him her business license while handing out business cards that displayed the name Michelle’s Melody Fine Piano Tuning, LLC.
“Being in a business is the most challenging thing right now,” Lamm said. “In addition to being an adult.”
A 2009 graduate of FSDB, Lamm started a St. Augustine-based piano tuning business in August shortly after graduating from the School of Piano Technology for the Blind in Vancouver, Wash. There, she learned how to tune, regulate and repair pianos.
“It took me six months to get used to being away from my parents,” Lamm said. “It was challenging to be away from home when I went to Vancouver.”
Her family was supportive of her career decisions and her independency.
“For me, everyone asked me about being an empty-nester,” said Ako Lamm, Michelle’s mother. “We knew Michelle was going to be fine because we knew she was going to follow her passion.”
After two years of learning about the science of restoring a piano’s actions and sounds, Lamm was one of a dozen women students to earn a completion certificate in the school’s 79-year history, according to an OregonLive.com article.
Although born with a rare eye condition called bilateral anophthalmia, Lamm has the ability to hear perfect pitch, and her technical skills were evident when she recently inspected a baby grand piano in the blind department’s music building at FSDB.
Piece by piece she disassembled parts of the piano without any assistance, as her mother looked on.
Lamm’s hands moved across the piano’s keys, felt, springs and screws with smooth strokes, her petit fingers inspecting each small part.
“I am just making sure the dampers are lifting at the same time,” she said. Upon further inspection they were not. A piano damper is a small felted block that drops onto a piano string to stop its vibration.
Lamm continued to work, inspecting each damper piece by piece with precision until the job was done.
When asked what she feels when inspecting pianos, she simply said, “I don’t know how to explain it.”
Lamm said she never imagined opening up a business while growing up, but she credits FSDB for where she is today. “The school taught me how to read Braille, how to get around using a cane, and they provided me with a good education,” she said.
Her former music teacher, Leslie Costello, said that Lamm was a natural who wasn’t afraid to try new things. “She has always been very matter-of-fact and observant and applied these traits to her work around her.”
Lamm’s love for music grew as she took up violin, clarinet and piano lessons while at FSDB. Her activities also included taking judo and woodworking classes, being a member of the swim team and involvement in the school’s art club.
“She never let anything stand in her way and she showed a remarkable dedication and commitment to her studies,” Costello said. During her senior year on a cultural trip, she hiked Peru’s Macchu Picchu at an altitude of 15,750 feet, the highest point.
After graduating from the School of Piano Technology as the youngest certified piano technician at age 21, she gained piano tuning experience through an internship at Buddy Gray Music in Alabama. Since moving back to St. Augustine she has tuned pianos at Jacksonville University, Florida State College and the University of North Florida.
Michelle has continued to not let her blindness hold her back as she embarks upon a journey as one of Florida’s newly inducted business entrepreneurs.
(Story and photos by Miki Kristina Gilloon, Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind)



Lenora J. Marten
NFB-Florida Secretary
FOPBC President
NFB-Jacksonville Chapter Secretary 
FOPBC at aol.com 
904-777-5976 / 904-229-9554


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://nfbnet.org/pipermail/fopbc_nfbnet.org/attachments/20111101/4a549ddc/attachment.html>