Page 60 - Senior Link Magazine Winter 2023 - Online Magazine

CELEBRATING THE

Centennial

of the Lubbock Music Club

by Carla Johnson and Elissa Stroman

or the past one hundred years, music formally in the decade prior,
musicians in Lubbock have and there was intense interest in
Fgathered monthly to share and having more musical opportunities. In
promote their love of music. The 1923, the South Plains Music Teachers
Lubbock Music Club was founded in Association was established, another
November 1923 when fifty-three women group dedicated to music education.
came together and elected Mrs. Jed Rix Though the organizations worked
as their first president. The club has independently through the years, they
traditionally focused on promoting occasionally joined forces to sponsor
American music and musicians, concerts, lectures, and festivals for
educating its members, and elevating South Plains residents. In the 1920s,
the musical tastes of the Lubbock bolstered by the work of these two
community. In 1924, the club joined the groups and the fledgling Texas
Texas Federation of Music Clubs as well Tech campus, Lubbock welcomed
as the National Federation of Music musicians and composers including:
Clubs. Paul Van Katwijk, Efrem Zimbalist,
David Guion, Edwin Hughes, Don
Jose Mojica, Percy Grainger, and John
In the early 1920s, Lubbock was still a Philip Sousa.
small town of four thousand residents,
but the 1920s was a decade of immense
growth and development in the region. As Lubbock grew, so too did the
The public schools had begun teaching music club’s activities. In 1927, the
Lubbock Music Club began observing
National Music Week, and for many
years brought together the local church
choirs to stage an annual production
of Handel’s Messiah. During World
War II, Lubbock’s various music
organizations worked together to
provide music and resources to Twilight Music Hours at the Texas Tech
servicemen at the airfield. Along with Museum, as well as utilizing local talent
the Allegro Music Club, the Lubbock to stage musical theater productions like
Music Club sponsored the first concert Fiddler on the Roof and an award-winning
of the Lubbock Little Symphony in 1946, children’s television program on KDUB
which became what is now the Lubbock in 1954 entitled “Adventures in Music
Symphony Orchestra. In the mid- Land.”
1950 photo published in the Lubbock AJ
twentieth century, the club held monthly

60 Lubbock Senior Link