ABOVE: Hannah Weaver, the new Music Director at St. Paul Lutheran Church and School in Fairmont, is pictured in her music classroom.

FAIRMONT– Hannah Weaver may not be from here, but she’s quickly settled in as the new Music Director at St. Paul Lutheran Church and School. Weaver began her new role in July of 2024.

As the music director, Weaver is half time with the school and half time with the church. She leads the adult choir, handbell choir, plays for services and spends half her time teaching music classes to students grades PreK to 8.

Weaver grew up in Scranton, Pennsylvania but went to college at Concordia Saint Paul as she had family in the area. Weaver graduated with a Director of Parish Music (DPM) certification and shared that music has always been a part of her life.

“I started piano when I was 7. My dad played classical guitar and my grandpa played piano as well. It was a big music thing. I grew up with it,” Weaver explained.

While she knew she wanted to study music, she wasn’t necessarily planning on going into Parish music specifically.

“God spoke and here I am,” Weaver said.

She had a lot of piano playing experience but didn’t start playing on a true organ until she was in college.

“I came to it a little late to be quite frank,” Weaver said, explaining that there are extra steps to playing an organ as opposed to the piano.

When it comes to teaching music to students, Weaver takes a different approach with different ages.

“For K through 4, we worked our way through the Feierabend Method,” Weaver said. “Basically tuneful, artful and beatful are the three goals of that. You learn to do those three things by doing. We sing a lot of songs and give a lot of opportunities for kids to sing in the group and by themselves to find beats of their own. That develops their ear to hear themselves actually doing it.”

She said the students have also begun to dance in the program to folk songs. They’ve also done some line dancing.

“Once the younger kids work their way through the book, we shift to learning how to read the music as well,” Weaver said.

Students in grades 5 to 8 are in the choir.

“We’re doing two part harmony. When we sing for church they lead the congregation throughout the service,” Weaver said.

Elaine Lieder, interim principal of the school, said that adding music to preschool was new this year.

“It was the right thing to do,” Lieder said.

Weaver said that she had experience teaching music to students that young so was excited about the opportunity to continue doing it.

“The earlier you can start, the better,” Weaver said.

Speaking to the benefits of music education, Lieder said, “research has shown that brain development is accelerated with exposure to music and the Lutheran Church, beginning with Martin Luther, had a very long tradition of teaching through music. A lot of hymns and the things we do in chapel have a teaching focus.”

She said that brain research also shows that the more disciplines children are exposed to, the better. Weaver added that music really lights up the brain.

“As a DPM, you want to think of every opportunity as an opportunity to teach and further knowledge and ability musically,” Weaver said.

As music director for the whole church and school, Weaver reflected on the volume and diversity of people she can reach and bring together.

“There are so few aspects of our day to day culture and life where intergenerational people can come together and do the same thing. I think music is one of those things that’s so apt and perfect for. In church everyone can sing. I think it’s important to foster something that an entire community can do together,” Weaver said.

*Editor’s Note: This article ran in the Sentinel’s Jan. 23 Lutheran Schools Week section.