Bigcas grew up in the Philippines until she came to the United States at age 18 on a scholarship. She earned a degree in music from Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina. Because music had been such a part of her life from a young age, she decided she wanted to use it to pursue a career as a teacher. She said she taught her first student at age 15.
“I got into [music] because I didn’t have a choice growing up,” she said. “But teaching, I just [always] wanted to do.”
All About Music & Arts opened in October 1996 and was founded by Linda Paredes. Starting in 1997, Bigcas taught for the school for about nine years before taking a leave of absence to raise her family.
During that time, Bigcas continued to teach lessons from home and returned to All About Music & Arts in 2014. Three years later, she purchased the business when Paredes retired.
The business offers a variety of classes in piano, voice, guitar, violin, flute, trumpet and art mediums, among others, for ages 5 and up. Students can take individual lessons or learn in a group of two to three for 30 minutes to an hour once a week. Additionally, the business offers “club rock,” which is two to five students performing different instruments in a band.
The business relocated from Cypress North Houston Road to Kluge Road last September. Due to low numbers of students attending classes because of the pandemic, All About Music & Arts was forced to close from March to June 2020, Bigcas said. She said parents could no longer afford lessons after being laid off, but rent was much cheaper at their new location.
“[With] a lot of the students, their parents had to quit because [they] lost their job because of COVID,” she said.
During their shutdown, Bigcas began holding online classes for her students. Now, she holds online and in-person lessons. She said she is always looking to grow her classes and empower more students to learn to play new instruments.
“So they don’t look at the instrument and [think], ‘This is something I hate,’” she said. “But they would enjoy it.”
All About Music & Arts, 13608 Kluge Road, Cypress. 832-237-8100. www.allaboutmusicandarts.net
Hours: Mon.-Thu. 2-8 p.m., Fri. 2-6:30 p.m., Sat. 10 a.m.-1 p.m., closed Sun.
