Lancaster native Sarah Hart is excited to be returning next month to her familial and musical roots for the first time in more than a decade to perform a collection of her contemporary Catholic Christian songs at a live concert.
The singer-songwriter is making a special Valentine’s Day appearance at Lancaster St. Mark Church that is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. Feb. 14.
The Evening with Sarah Hart event was arranged by Randall Tipple, the music director at St. Mark who asked Hart last year at a Catholic musicians’ conference in Louisville, Kentucky, whether she’d consider coming back home for a concert, and she accepted.
Hart’s last performance in her hometown came 15 years ago when she released her Road to Ohio album.
“I’m really super excited that we landed on that day because it’s a special time,” Hart said recently from her home in Nashville, Tennessee, where she lives with her husband and two children. “So, we’ve got that spirit of love going on Valentine’s Day, and I do hope that couples – and just anybody – will come.”
Hart jokingly refers to herself as an accidental artist, but her accomplishments include a Grammy nomination for songwriting and a performance for Pope Francis during a World Meeting of Families
A prolific writer, she has composed music for television, film and audiobooks, and her songs have been recorded by notables such as Amy Grant, Celtic Woman, Matt Maher and The Newsboys. Among her credits are a musical, Bernadette of Lourdes, based on the life of St. Bernadette, a Mass of St. Mary Magdalene and the publication of four retreat books.
Hart’s busy touring schedule includes not only concerts and performances at conventions throughout the country but parish missions and retreats, workshops for musicians, diocesan youth ministry events, Masses and Eucharistic Adoration.
Hart traces her formation as a musician to her family.
“We were involved in a lot of different folk groups and singing at church,” Hart recalled. “So, I was always sitting at the feet of guitars, autoharps and mandolins and whatever anybody had, just learning music, soaking it up, and so from the time I was very little it was just always part of who I was.
“I like to explain it like this: I feel like when it comes to music, it was never really a choice I made, but it was a choice that was made for me. I was kind of that weird little kid who would have much preferred to be there than playing outside.”
Her Catholic education began at Lancaster St. Bernadette School. She moved to Lancaster St. Mary for middle school and then on to Lancaster Fisher Catholic High School.
“Music obviously became part of my formation,” Hart said. But I didn’t really intend in any way, shape or form to do what I’m doing now with my life. But looking back, I can see how deeply those roots go.”
In high school, she was contemplating a career other than music before Lon Cass, then the director of bands at Fisher Catholic, intervened.
“I’ll never forget the day that he sat me down and said, ‘What are you going to do with your life?’” Hart recalled. “And I said, ‘I think I want to be a pediatrician.’ And he laughed at me. He totally laughed in my face and said, ‘You are not going to be a pediatrician, you’re going to be a musician.’
“To which I said, ‘You know, I don’t think so because I want to make money. Musicians are always thinking about that. He said, ‘You know, that’s fine. You can be a pediatrician, but you’ll be the most miserable pediatrician on the planet because you’re built for music. Even if you don’t make any money, you’re still built for music.’ So, he was right. And I took his advice.”
Hart went off to Columbus to study at Ohio State University, graduating with a degree in music theory and composition.
“And it ended up working for me,” she said. “When you’re in music, you have to work twice as hard as everybody in every other fields, but I’ve loved every moment of it. So grateful.”
During those Ohio State years, Hart strayed from the Catholic faith of her upbringing but came back to the Church during her senior year with a rekindled passion. At that point, she had started listening to contemporary Christian music for the first time.
“A friend of mine had given me a couple of tapes and said, ‘Listen to these,’” Hart recalled. “I didn’t know such a thing existed. I really had only grown up on liturgical music. I knew who Amy Grant was, but that was about it. I didn’t realize there was a whole world of people doing it, and it was a thing you could do.”
After college, she moved to Nashville, and her career began. In 2010, Hart wrote Better Than a Hallelujah, performed by Grant and nominated for a Grammy as Best Gospel Song. Her writing career includes movie soundtracks, audiobook soundtracks in the Curious George series and hymns published by Oregon Catholic Press.
“I just wanted to write songs, and I wanted to write songs for other people,” Hart said. “And that was really where I thought it would land. But once I moved to town, I had so many publishers who were like, maybe you should think about doing some of these yourself, because these seem to be Sarah Hart songs for lack of better terminology.
“So, I kind of accidentally landed with a label, and I accidentally made a first record, and then I just kept going.”
Hart recorded her latest collection of songs, and lovely it is, in 2019. Other album titles include Sacrament, Til the Song Is Sung and SaintSong.
The inspiration for her songs and her spiritual writing comes through daily prayer, life experiences and collaboration with other musicians. And what’s most rewarding is when someone tells her a song helped them get through a tough time in their life.
“I’m really the last person who cares about accolades and all that stuff,” she said. “I just really want to know that what I’m doing when I’m writing is helping somebody in some way – that somebody’s heart is changing, or that they’re able to feel something that they haven’t felt before.
“The ones that touch me the most are from people who have lost a child. Those always strike me so deeply, and there are a lot of them.
“There’s just a lot of struggle and suffering out there, and knowing that, in a way, we can be doctors and nurses with our simple little lyrics and melodies, it’s really a humbling thing.
“I think that’s the real power of music and the real power of what musicians do.”
Tickets for the Lancaster concert, which are $10 each, can be purchased online at stmarklancaster.com/music-ministry.