Ep. 45 - Delivering Hope Through Choral Outreach - Amanda Weber

"That was the beginning of me working with a homeless women's choir. As someone who grew up doing music my whole life, it was just part of my DNA. This broke open everything I had ever thought or experienced about music, and it gave me some really new opportunities and new ways to look at the power and purpose of singing. For the people I was working with, it was part of what would get them through a day or week, and that was really powerful." Amanda Weber currently serves as Director of Worship and the Arts at Westminster Presbyterian Church in downtown Minneapolis, where she oversees a wealth of arts programming. Her work explores the intersections of art, spirituality, and justice and their impact on community. With a deep love for teaching, Weber has served as adjunct professor for Concordia University St. Paul and the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. She co-facilitated a Social Justice and Music January-term course at St. Olaf College and was a Vocal Instructor for theology students at Yale Divinity School. Weber also taught high school at the Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts in Hartford, CT.Weber is the Founder and Artistic Director of Voices of Hope, an organization that builds choral singing communities in correctional facilities in the state of Minnesota. Weber’s doctoral dissertation, which focused on this work, was awarded the Julius Herford Dissertation Prize in 2018. She has presented on the topic of incarceration and choral singing at numerous conferences and was also invited to speak for a TEDx Minneapolis Salon in 2016.Weber’s interest in using music as a tool for social justice grew through her work at Luther Place Memorial Church in Washington, DC, where she founded Bethany’s Women of Praise, a choir for homeless women.  Weber received a Doctorate of Musical Arts from the University of Minnesota in 2018, a Master of Music Degree in Choral Conducting at the Yale School of Music and Institute of Sacred Music in 2013, and a Bachelor of Arts in Music and Art at Luther College in 2008.  You can find out more about Amanda by visiting amandakateweber.com and learn more about Voices of Hope at www.wearevoicesofhope.org. You can also find Amanda on Facebook (@amanda.weber.731) or Instagram (@we6er).Choir Fam wants to hear from you! Check out the Minisode Intro episode from September 16, 2022, to hear how to share your story with us. Email choirfampodcast@gmail.com to contact our hosts.Podcast music from Podcast.coPhoto in episode artwork by Trace Hudson from Pexels