Seasons & Tickets

Kingwood Big Band

Guest artist, Horace Alexander Young (vocalist and saxophonist)

Handel’s Messiah

Kingwood Chorale and Chamber Orchestra

Nancy Curtis

Soprano

Soprano Nancy Curtis enjoys a multifaceted career as a singer of opera, symphonic repertoire, and recitals. She has thrilled audiences with her “rich, powerful tone,” and her artistry has drawn praise from colleagues, audiences, and critics alike. Hailed as a “stand-out,” Ms. Curtis has been featured with opera companies throughout the United States including the Virginia Opera, the Tulsa Opera, the New York City Opera, Michigan Opera Theatre, Houston Grand Opera, Birmingham Opera Theatre, Tacoma Opera and the Lyric Opera of San Antonio. With a voice of “surpassing beauty,” Nancy has been presented as the soprano soloist for the Austin Symphony, the San Antonio Symphony, the Texarkana Symphony, the Maryland Symphony, the Arkansas Symphony, the Virginia Symphony, the Santa Fe Symphony, and the Tulsa Philharmonic and Ballet. As a winner of the prestigious Enrico Caruso International Voice Competition, Ms. Curtis was invited to sing concerts throughout Italy including an appearance at the famed opera house, La Scala. As a member of the acclaimed choral group Conspirare, Nancy was featured on the Grammy nominated NPR television special, A Company of Voices as well as the 2015 Grammy Award winning recording, The Sacred Spirit of Russia. She has sung for many of our nation’s leaders including former Presidents George Bush, Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan, and Texas Governor Greg Abbott and has had the privilege of singing the National Anthem for the Houston Texans, the Houston Rockets, the Houston Marathon, the Texas Prayer Breakfast and the commissioning of the USS Texas. Nancy lives in The Woodlands with her husband and two sons.

Carolena Belle Lara

Mezzo-Soprano

Carolena Belle Lara is a mezzo-soprano from the Houston, TX area. She completed her Bachelor of Music in vocal performance and a Bachelor of Arts in Italian at the University of Oklahoma (2016). Afterwards, she attended the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY for both her Master’s degree (2018) and her Doctorate (2022) in Vocal Performance and Literature. During her time at Eastman, she was awarded Honorable Mention for her lecture recital entitled Modernizing Spanish-Language Vocal Music. Instructing young collegiate singers is Dr. Lara’s passion, and it is her distinct pleasure to serve as an adjunct professor at Lone Star College- Kingwood, teaching applied voice and aural skills. Dr. Lara has also been performing with the Houston Grand Opera since 2022, and this season she is making her role debut as the 2nd Lay sister in Puccini’s Suor Angelica.

Brian Ross Yeakley

Tenor

Brian Ross Yeakley, Houston based tenor originally from Wichita, Kansas, is honored to return to Lonestar College Kingwood as a soloist! Education: Wichita State University (Bachelors), and University of Houston (Masters and Artist Diploma) under the tutelage of Melanie Sonnenberg. Professional opera company highlights: Wolf Trap Opera, Glimmerglass Opera Festival, Opera Saratoga, Virginia Opera, Austin Opera. Concert performance highlights: Austin Symphony, Valley Symphony Orchestra, Victoria Symphony, Mercury Houston. Yeakley is also founder and CEO of small local opera company Operativo Houston (2016-present) (www.operativohouston.com). Recent performances: Lord Tolloller, Iolanthe, G&S Society Houston; The Witch/Die Hexe, Wichita Grand Opera; Tenor Soloist, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Sam Houston State University; Mr. Clayton, Stephen Schwartz’ Seance on a Wet Afternoon, Lonestar Lyric Opera.

Dr. LaMarcus Miller

a.k.a. Dr. L

Bass

Dr. LaMarcus Miller (a.k.a. Dr. L) hails from Boston, MA, where he is a Professor of Contemporary Voice & Professor of Music Synchronization for visual media for the Music Business department and a member of the Voice Department’s Education Committee at Berklee College of Music, where he created a brand new course for Music Business entitled; Music Licensing 101: TV, Film & Trailer – Negotiation Tactics/Workflow of a Music Supervisors. Dr. L is considered a “vocal chameleon,” simultaneously singing both classical and contemporary repertoire. Having sung at renowned venues such as Dolby Theatre as a guest soloist for Final Fantasy XIV, an over 30-year-old video game franchise with over 10.56 million monthly subscribers, The Kennedy Center (where he debuted the opera Fallujah), Carnegie Hall (where he won Nico Castel’s International Master Competition), Jordan Hall, Jazz at Lincoln (alongside Wynton Marsalis), New York City Opera, and more, Dr. L is superlative in guiding other young talents at Berklee to chameleonize their voices to snake through a mélange of genres from 19th-century opera, to musical theatre to Pop/R&B. LaMarcus’s biggest claim to fame was coaching Netflix Start Tituss Burgess from Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt for the Kennedy Center Honors concert for Renee Flemming.

In addition to being a prominent vocalist/vocal instructor in the New England area, he is currently a rising, sought-after Music Supervisor/ Music Licensing expert for television and film. Dr. L started working for HTGR (Hit the Ground Running), a boutique music licensing Agency inserted into Nas’s Record Label/ Production company under head Music Supervisor Justin Feldman. This experience started LaMarcus working on Hip-Hop Documentaries for Showtime and other major networks. Dr. L has worked on TV shows such as The Wonder Years (Seasons 1 and 2) on ABC with Amani K. Smith, Rap Caviar Presents on Hulu, The Life and Times of the Sierra Canyon Trailblazers on Amazon, Little League World Series (ESPN) ,Why Not US (ESPN), Dave (Season 2) on FX, Running While Black on Vice TV, Pen, Again (Harlem Film Festival), Choir, Disney+, Gotham Knights (Pilot), on CW and more. His most prominent work to date was on Jim Henson’s Idea Man, where he was Head Music Supervisor, working alongside his Co-Music Supervisor, Livy Rodriguez-Behar, Ron Howard (director) & David Fleming (composer). The documentary won 5 Emmys, debuted at the Cannes Film Festival in France, and landed LaMarcus & Livy a nomination for the Hollywood Music in Media Awards.

Before joining the ranks of Berklee College of Music, Dr. L was Head of Operations for the Guild of Music Supervisors, where he was the right hand of CEO Joel C. High (Head of Music, Tyler Perry Studios) & Vice President Madonna Wade-Reed (Music Supervisor). Here, Dr. L ran the guild, built strategic partnerships with Record Labels, Publishers, and Production Music Libraries, and advocated for the craft and the Guilds constituency for fair wages & treatment of Music Supervisors in post-production.

Dr. L also co-produced the “50th Anniversary of Hip-Hop” for the Guild of Music Supervisors State of Music in Media conference alongside Yvette Metoyer with talents such as Cheryl “Salt” James from Salt-N-Pepa, Chuck D from Public Enemy, King T, Dante Ross, Ananda Lewis, Medusa, and more. He is actively a member of the Guild of Music Supervisors’ Education Committee for their annual “State of Music in Media” conference, where he produced their first ever and wildly successful Listening session, allowing songwriters to get valuable feedback from supervisors who are titans in their respective crafts, i.e., Trailer, Film, Tv, Commercials & video games.

Finally, Dr. L is a Board member of the Boston Chapter of NATS (National Association of Teachers of Singing), where he is their Director of Commercial Music & Innovation. As NATS integrates commercial music for the first in their offerings as of 2023, LaMarcus acts as a liaison between introducing Berklee to NATS in addition to creating commercial music programming & resources for teachers, students, and music lovers in the Boston area to be eventually mirrored by national.

Seasons & Tickets

Kingwood Big Band

Handel’s Messiah

Nancy Curtis

Soprano

Carolena Belle Lara

Mezzo-Soprano

Brian Ross Yeakley

Tenor

Dr. LaMarcus Miller

a.k.a. Dr. L

Bass

EDUCATION

Kingwood Big Band

High Notes and Hot Rhythms