September 2025 | Vol. 34 Iss. 9
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Barry Manilow shines spotlight on RHS music teacher Jet Burnham | j.burnham@mycityjournals.com
Because ‘music and passion are always the fashion,’ Barry Manilow shines the spotlight on dedicated RHS music teacher.
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iverton High School’s Director of Instrumental Music Jason Weimer shared the spotlight with Barry Manilow at the crooner’s concert at the Maverick Center July 14. Weimer, who teaches band, orchestra, winter color guard, marching band and AP music theory classes at RHS, was selected from eight local nominees as the winner of a Barry Manilow Music Teacher Award and $10K. The Barry Manilow Music Project recognized one music educator in each community where the award-winning musician performed during the month of July. Weimer met Manilow and they spoke briefly about classical music, education philosophies and musical instruments, discovering that they both played the clarinet. “Chatting with Barry was really cool,” Weimer said. “He’s really a kind person, or that was the kind of vibe I got.” About halfway through his concert, Manilow asked the audience to applaud for Weimer, and many concert-goers approached Weimer after the show to congratulate him and to share personal stories of how much school music programs had mattered to them or their kids. “That was super great, because public school teachers—it’s easy to get sort of discouraged sometimes—but it was super awesome and encouraging to see that many people come up to me and go out of their way to
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Riverton High School’s music department teachers: Drew Holland, Chris Jessee and Jason Weimer. (Photo courtesy Heather Ence)
say that it was important to them or made a big difference to them,” Weimer said. RHS band parent Heather Ence was glad Weimer got the public recognition he deserves for being an excellent teacher. “Weimer, as the students call him, did everything to make music fun and an enjoyable experience, and because of that, our son had a fantastic high school experience,” she said. Weimer himself was shaped by his experience as a music student at Riverton High School. It was the influence of two RHS music teachers, Heather Christensen and Kevin Fallon, which inspired him to pursue a career as a music teacher. Weimer never left RHS— he worked on the marching band staff while attending college to earn a Bachelor of Music Education from the University of Utah and a master’s degree in Music Education from the University of Michigan. Then, just as he was finishing his degree, the teaching position at RHS became available. “It was a serendipitous happenstance,” Weimer said. “Plus, it’s kind of every music teacher’s dream to work where they went.” This will be Weimer’s thirteenth year of Continued page 4