Ann Hossler serves UUFVB as the Director of Music Ministries. Hired as the pianist on January 1, 2006, she has since assumed both director of music and choir director responsibilities. She sits on the Music and Worship committees, and meets regularly with the minister.

Her musical biography follows:

     It feels like I have been involved with church music my whole life. When I was young, my mother was the song leader for the primary department in the large E.U.B. church where we attended, and my sister and I were her guinea pigs for trying out songs that might work for the rest of the first, second and third graders. She also played the piano at home, so it was no surprise that both my sister and I began piano lessons in elementary school. We would play duets at home, and sing. It seemed like the normal state of things was that to be a grown-up was to know how to play the piano. During my high school years, an organ store opened in our small town (a fact that feels quite amazing to me now), and my father indulged his wish to have organ music in the house. My parents bought a lovely Gulbranson organ with two manuals and a two-octave pedal board. Since I was the appropriate age, I was the one deemed suitable to take organ lessons. My teacher was fond of many types of music, so the “light” music that I played easily at home was mixed with stronger fodder like Gordon Young and Bach.

     Throughout my teen-age years, I played the piano for both primary and junior Sunday School departments at the church (which had become United Methodist), as well as accompanying my soprano sister when she sang during services. I also participated in the vocal and bell choirs, and became the designated person to accompany any singing (such as Christmas carols) that was part of my youth fellowship activities.

     It was natural that when I moved into the world as an adult, music would be one of my primary involvements with my church communities—both as a choir member and as a musician. I was a substitute organist for a United Church of Christ congregation before landing at the UUs. At that congregation--in Harrisburg, PA--the Sunday morning music was provided by a rotating cadre of musicians, as well as singing in the choir and participating in their yearly musical review called “Kaleidoscope.” I simply took my place in the musician rotation, and eventually became the music chair there for several years.

     After serving at the Harrisburg church for nearly 10 years, my husband and I moved to another UU congregation in Lancaster, PA. They employed a full-time organist, so my musical duties changed to occasional “special music” interludes. After several years there, the minister instituted a weekly meditative Vespers service of music and word, and I provided the music for that service every other week.

     Stepping out of the UU fold for several years, I served as substitute organist and assistant choir director at an Episcopal congregation, ached for music at a Quaker congregation, and then became the organist and choir accompanist for a small United Methodist congregation. I was with them for just over two years—until we moved to Florida. Within a month of arriving here, I had been chosen as the organist and choir accompanist for the United Methodist church in Sebastian. I served them for 6 months, and, as of January 2006, came to UUFVB as the pianist. That role expanded to include the duties of choir director and greater administrative responsibility as the Director of Music Ministries in the Fall of 2007.

     I have discovered that music is an important part of my spirituality. I am not, and will never be, a technically exceptional musician. But I believe strongly that music is a great gift that the Divine has given us to open us up to the Beyond-ness of Life. For me, that is the critical difference between sacred and secular music. To perform secular music is to be a performer; to perform sacred music (especially in a congregational setting) is to provide a vessel for the Holy to enter into the world. I consider it a great privilege to be part of that.

 UUFVB Choir

Music Program

A Vision of the Music Program at UUFVB from the Director of Music