The seed began to germinate in early 1992 when Dale Elmshaeuser, founder of Live Oak House, decided to begin publishing his compositions for instrumental ensembles in worship services. Dale had often been frustrated with trying to find music suitable for worship services, yet playable by parish instrumentalists (high schoolers and adults). This led to his writing of music suitable for the instrumental groups he was directing.

The members of several congregations for which Dale served often encouraged him to submit his compositions for publication. However, he was told by publishers that there was not a sufficient market for this type of music, because very few parishes had instrumental ensembles. Dale felt that the market was there, and that more instrumental ensembles would be formed if the music were available. Thus Live Oak House was born to meet this need.

In July of 1992 Live Oak House set up its first exhibit in Austin, TX at the Southeastern Regional Conference of the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians. The response was encouraging. A number of attendees were very excited to know that someone was publishing this type of music.

From this small beginning Live Oak House has branched out to include twenty composers, writing music for brass, woodwind, and string ensembles, as well as choral arrangements with instrumental accompaniments. Our customer base reaches from coast to coast and from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, and we are committed to providing quality instrumental music for worship services.