Music of the Heart

WARTBURG MAGAZINE | FALL 2026 ISSUE

Family connection deepens song’s meaning for Lizzie Hobby ’26

Nov. 1, 2026

Lizzie Hobby signs during the 2024 Wartburg Choir performance of Ain’t No Grave Can Hold My Body Down in the Wartburg Chapel.

FLASHBACK Lizzie and Lydia Hobby practice the sign language to Ain’t No Grave Can Hold My Body Down on a train trip from Salzburg to Munich in 2018. — **FLASHBACK** Lizzie (left) and Lydia (right) Hobby practice the sign language to Ain’t No Grave Can Hold My Body Down on a train trip from Salzburg to Munich in 2018.

Lizzie Hobby ’26 was in middle school when she first saw the video of the Wartburg Choir performing Ain’t No Grave Can Hold My Body Down, which featured a full-song sign language solo by Samantha Hallgren ’18. Despite her age, Lizzie knew she was watching something special.

Lizzie and her older sister, Lydia ’22, spent the next several months watching the video and learning the sign language in hopes they would someday perform the transformational piece. Lydia never got her chance at Wartburg, but she happily celebrated with her sister when the Concordia Lutheran High School Choir selected Lizzie to sign the song her senior year — and again in 2024 when Lizzie signed the song for the Wartburg Choir.

While performing Ain’t No Grave with the Wartburg Choir is still considered a top-tier memory for Lizzie, an even more meaningful experience was singing God Be in My Head, a song composed by her father, Robert Hobby.

“I actually talked to Dr. (Lee) Nelson over the summer about including the song in our repertoire for my senior year. I didn’t tell my dad I had asked because I wanted it to be a surprise,” Lizzie said. “Knowing how well the choir sings and how we all connect to the music, I knew it would be a meaningful experience.”

The song holds a special place in the Hobby family’s hearts. Lydia was a member of the Wartburg Choir when they sang the song — masked and standing at least six feet apart — in the Wartburg Chapel in 2021.

“That performance in the Chapel still resonates with me today. It was one of those moments that reminded me why music matters and why the work we do together is so meaningful,” Nelson said.

Only a few months later, Lydia and Lizzie’s mom, Jenny, was diagnosed with glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer. Despite being given only 18 to 24 months to live, Jenny was able to attend Lizzie’s last Wartburg Choir home concert in April.

The pandemic kept Lydia (left) from touring internationally with the Wartburg Choir, but she was able to join Lizzie (right) and Dr. Lee Nelson on tour in Germany in 2026.

The Hobby family, joined here by Dr. Lee Nelson, traveled from Indiana to Iowa for Lizzie’s final RICE Day and home Wartburg Choir concert.

“We are so grateful that we were given that weekend,” said Robert. “It really is a miracle for our family. And to hear the choir sing God Be in My Head was so beautiful. I’ve always felt a deep connection with that song, but it’s grown deeper in the last four years. It’s true what they say, that with music, life experiences can shape how we sing and feel words in different ways.”

Though the piece was commissioned by the conductor of the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church choir in Santa Monica, Calif., it has been sung in worship services, weddings, funerals, and concerts throughout the world.

“One of the things I love most about choral music is that it carries stories and memories with it. When we sing a piece, we are not just performing notes on a page. We are connecting people, generations, and experiences,” Nelson said. “Programming God Be in My Head felt like an opportunity to honor those connections while also introducing a beautiful work to a new generation of singers.

“It is both humbling and gratifying to think that the Wartburg Choir may have played a small role in helping bring this music to people who needed it most. If the piece has offered even a moment of light, peace, comfort, or hope during difficult times, then that is one of the greatest gifts music can provide.”

“One of the things I love most about choral music is that it carries stories and memories with it. When we sing a piece, we are not just performing notes on a page. We are connecting people, generations, and experiences.”
– Dr. Lee Nelson

For Robert, who is used to hearing his music performed by a church choir, having Nelson select the piece for the Wartburg Choir was especially meaningful.

“I’ve known of Lee for quite some time, and I had heard more and more about the quality of his choir when we hosted him at my church,” said Robert, who serves as the director of music for Trinity English Lutheran Church in Fort Wayne, Ind. “A colleague of mine told me I needed to get them to our church and that I would be floored by their sound, and I was.

“People come into the concert thinking they will hear a nice college choir concert, and they are just blown away that first time. It was that experience of hearing and singing with the Wartburg Choir that brought both of the girls to Wartburg.”

Even though Lizzie tried quite hard not to follow in her sister’s footsteps.

“I applied to 13 other schools, and I was accepted into all of them, but none of them felt like home like Wartburg did,” Lizzie said. “I was able to grow as a person, which allowed me to step outside my comfort zone. Dr. Nelson has created such a close-knit community in the choir, and they felt like a family from day one.”

And that is music to a father’s ears.

“It was Lydia’s senior year when Jenny was diagnosed, and that was hard being so far away from her, but I always knew she would be taken care of here, that people were watching out for her without us even asking,” Robert said. “When Lizzie decided to come here, it was a hard decision, but we knew she would receive the same care Lydia did,
which made her leaving a little easier.”

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