{"id":396539,"date":"2026-08-03T16:36:18","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T16:36:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/396539\/"},"modified":"2026-08-03T16:36:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T16:36:18","slug":"lake-houston-musical-arts-society-cultivates-community-music-making-in-kingwood-lake-houston-humble-kingwood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/396539\/","title":{"rendered":"Lake Houston Musical Arts Society cultivates community music making in Kingwood | Lake Houston – Humble – Kingwood"},"content":{"rendered":"

For nearly 40 years, the Lake Houston Musical Arts Society<\/a> has cultivated the talent of local aspiring musicians, while simultaneously making world-class performances accessible to the Kingwood community.<\/p>\n

The framework<\/p>\n

Originally founded as the Kingwood Musical Arts Society in 1988 by Dudley and Melanie Cavanaugh, LHMAS serves as the sponsor organization for the Kingwood Chorale<\/a>\u2014also founded in 1988\u2014and the Kingwood Jazz Orchestra<\/a>, which was founded in 2004 as the Kingwood Big Band.<\/p>\n

Made up of both community musicians and student musicians, the Kingwood Chorale has about 80-100 members, while the Kingwood Jazz Orchestra has 18 members. The groups each typically have one 2.5-hour rehearsal per week and have one major performance each semester, though officials noted additional performances through collaborations with other groups often occur.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe try to make this as rich of an experience as we possibly can that\u2019s still accessible to community members with lives other than playing [music] and singing,\u201d said Dennis Eichler, Kingwood Jazz Orchestra conductor and adjunct professor at Lone Star College-Kingwood<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Behind the scenes, the LHMAS provides the funding and logistics needed for both groups to perform, while also fostering opportunities for local student musicians.<\/p>\n

The impact<\/p>\n

In 1996, the LHMAS formed a partnership with LSC-Kingwood to not only include students in performances, but to also further their education through scholarships. Over the past 30 years, officials said the organization has provided hundreds of thousands of dollars in scholarships.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted to give back so we developed that scholarship program, which I think has been a very big success in bringing really top-notch young musicians to the college and by extension to the Chorale and to the Jazz Orchestra,\u201d said Jim Stubbs, LHMAS chair and retired music faculty and dean of Arts & Humanities at LSC-Kingwood.<\/p>\n

In addition to the scholarship program, LHMAS also supports high school and college student musicians by funding camps and clinics hosted by guest artists.<\/p>\n

How it works<\/p>\n

While performances by the Kingwood Chorale and Kingwood Jazz Orchestra are ticketed events, Stubbs said they try to keep prices as affordable as possible, offering discounts to both students and seniors. As a result, ticket sales only cover about 25% of the organization\u2019s expenses.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to make it as accessible as we can,\u201d Stubb said. \u201cWe\u2019re very, very proud to have developed these groups to the level that we think they\u2019re comparable to what you drive downtown for, but it\u2019s our hometown.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stubbs noted the organizations rely heavily on program advertising and patron donations to cover the remaining costs. Additionally, group leaders said they\u2019re thankful for volunteers from the Kingwood Women\u2019s Club<\/a> that provide front-of-house support during performances, as well as neighboring churches, such as Strawbridge United Methodist Church<\/a> and First Presbyterian Church Kingwood<\/a>, that often serve as performance venues.<\/p>\n

Stay tuned<\/p>\n

Nearly 40 years after its founding, LHMAS leaders said they\u2019re looking forward to continued growth and an upcoming season filled with collaboration with groups such as the Texas Medical Center Orchestra<\/a> and the Texarkana Regional Chorale<\/a>. Additionally, guest artists this season will include soprano Nancy Curtis and saxophonists Rick Condit and Eric Marienthal.<\/p>\n

\u201cMusic is a gift to the world, and I think the mark of a good society is to have music around, not just in a church setting, but in our community and that\u2019s really why the LHMAS exists … for the betterment of the community,\u201d said Todd Miller, Kingwood Chorale conductor and chair of the Music Department at LSC-Kingwood.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For nearly 40 years, the Lake Houston Musical Arts Society has cultivated the talent of local aspiring musicians,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":396540,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57,131893,139240,131894,131895,574,94629,139241],"class_list":["post-396539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-kingwood-big-band","tag-kingwood-chorale","tag-kingwood-jazz-orchestra","tag-lake-houston-musical-arts-society","tag-live-music","tag-lone-star-college-kingwood","tag-music-scholarships"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=396539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396539\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/396540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}