During his junior year at Kingwood Park High School in 2020, Giovanni Scottile’s burgeoning career as a musician came to a halt.
Scottile—a jazz trumpeter who performs with several ensembles at Lone Star College-Kingwood in addition to the Kingwood Big Band—had been booking gigs around the Lake Houston area. However, he was forced to put everything on hold when lockdowns were enforced to halt the spread of COVID-19 in early 2020.
“[My friend and I] used to gig two to three times a week, but it definitely took a hit,” Scottile said. “We couldn’t go anywhere. It was really tough.”
Like most industries in Texas, the fine arts community has been hit hard during the pandemic. Performances at the Charles Bender Performing Arts Center in Humble were canceled. Members of the Kingwood Chorale and Orchestra, the Texas Master Chorale, the Kingwood Big Band and the Texas Repertory Theatre Co. were unable to take to the stage for months.
“Our drama, art and music departments basically stopped all public performances and gallery shows during the [COVID-19] lockdowns of 2020-21,” said Todd Miller, the chair of the LSC-Kingwood Visual & Performing Arts Department. “This fall was the first time everything felt normal since fall 2019.”
Despite the setbacks, Sam Treynor, chair of the Lake Houston Musical Arts Society board of directors, said the fine arts community in the Lake Houston area has been growing in recent years, and he believes it will continue to expand.
In addition to providing funding for the Kingwood Big Band and the Kingwood Chorale and Chamber Orchestra, the Lake Houston Musical Arts Society promotes arts in the area.
“What’s being done here is almost like a hidden gem in the Lake Houston area,” Treynor said. “It has a talent base that does some excellent presentations ... that you would otherwise have to go to downtown Houston to attend.”
Financial losses
From April to July 2020, Texas ranked third in the nation for the most jobs and sales losses in the creative arts industry with an estimated 190,000 jobs lost and roughly $7.3 billion lost in sales.
While Miller said the financial losses for LSC-Kingwood’s visual and performing arts department were difficult to determine, he noted the theater, music and art programs were forced to cancel all public performances and gallery shows from March 2020 until September 2021.
Similarly, Miller said the Kingwood Chorale and Chamber Orchestra and the Kingwood Big Band were forced to cancel their entire 2020-21 seasons, causing an estimated $40,000 in lost revenue for each group.
“[Before there were COVID-19] vaccines, there was a very famous case of a community college group that met and spread COVID, and several of their choir members died,” Miller said. “That rocked through the entire musical world. Everything literally shut down.”
According to Jennifer Wooden, director of the Charles Bender Performing Arts Center, all shows produced by the city of Humble were canceled during the pandemic, but she said the center was still rented out for private shows after restrictions were lifted.
“Once we started renting again, our arena and theater calendar was packed,” Wooden said.
Additionally, Wooden said staff members took advantage of the downtime to make improvements throughout the performing arts center, which includes the theater, a recreational building, an arena, a civic center and a senior activity center.
