Song for all seasons South Strabane woman wins national DAR music contest
Bobbi Jo Heastings of South Strabane Township performs “Family, Faith and Country,” the song that won her national acclaim from the Daughters of the American Revolution.
Bobbi Jo Heastings poses at her refurbished Steinway & Sons piano in her South Strabane Township home.
The title of one of Bobbi Jo Heastings’ most recent compositions, “Family, Faith and Country,” contains everything she holds dear.
It also tugged at the heartstrings of the judges in a national contest sponsored by the Daughters of the American Revolution.
Her winning entry in the Music: Vocal category was recently performed by the Washington Festival Chorale at the Whiskey Rebellion Festival in Washington, and in June 2018, Heastings will perform the piece at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C., during the DAR conference.
“Family, Faith and Country” is about a war veteran whose daughter recalls the memories of displaying the American flag, and shows that even though a country can be divided, eventually it will heal.
“It’s the first piece I’ve written in a while with the words,” Heastings said. “Patriotic tunes are up my alley. Anything with soldiers and community, it’s just inspiring.”
Heastings, who resides in South Strabane Township and is a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, said once she learned the DAR held music contests, she would monitor its website to check out the submissions. “I thought, ‘I’d like to try this,'” she said.
Heastings is a retired music teacher who spent her entire teaching career in the Washington School District, with all but her last year – 2004-05 – at the elementary level.
She took an interest in music when she started to play the piano in second grade, but her passion was solidified in seventh grade, when she began taking piano lessons from Ann Weber in the pianist’s East Washington home.
“I learned so much from her,” Heastings said.
Heastings, 67, majored in music at West Chester College, and has taken graduate classes at West Virginia and Duquesne universities and Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis.
“I never got a master’s, but I took enough classes that I have a master’s equivalency,” Heastings said.
Today, she composes most of her music on a beautifully refurbished Steinway & Sons piano, which is a commanding presence in a sitting room on the first floor of Heastings’ home.
“The room is not big enough, but that’s what I have,” Heastings said.
Besides, she said, it’s convenient. “I come down in the morning and play.”
She also composes some of her music through Finale Music Notation Software, which offers composers the flexibility and freedom to create music on a keyboard, mouse or computer. The software can move measures, change keys and perform dozens of edits with ease, and even offers creative and editorial input.
In addition, Heastings will peruse old hymnals, rewriting songs to modernize them, which is very appealing to the well-traveled church organist.
“It really is fun. It’s a training ground for sacred pieces,” Heastings said, referring to her organist’s duties.
Heastings said she knew when she retired from teaching that “it wasn’t the end” of her musical career, although she playfully scoffed at the suggestion that composing music is like a second career.
“It is a hobby,” said Heastings, who kick-started in earnest her composition career in 2012, when she attended a concert by renowned composer Joseph Martin. During a get-together afterward, she expressed her interest in writing songs. Martin suggested she attend a composer’s symposium he was conducting in Decatur, Ga.
In 2016, Heastings had her first choral piece published, and this fall she has another coming out. She also has had a piano solo published.
“I just keep plugging away,” Heastings said.
Her goal is to be published by the well-respected Beckenhorst Press, which requires a résumé and selects only 10 to 14 songs per year.
“Beckenhorst is more sophisticated, and their requirements are so high,” she said. “If you don’t ask, you don’t get. I wasn’t confident enough in my early stages.”
But Heastings is now, especially after being recognized on a national stage.
“It’s just so rewarding,” she said. “I wrote pieces for kids, and I’ve given so many people songs I wrote, but I never thought about publishing them. I just had fun doing it.”