Singing her song: Moses Lake’s Debbie Roeber shares her talent through private voice studio

MOSES LAKE — You wouldn’t expect a pastor’s wife to perform a Tina Turner tribute on stage in Las Vegas, but that’s just the sort of thing Debbie Roeber of Moses Lake found herself up to in 2019.

Roeber has made it a mission in life to share her gift for signing and performing with as many people as possible. While she doesn’t get the chance to perform as much anymore, she has shared her talents through her voice students at her home studio, Debbie Roeber Voice Studio, in Moses Lake, for about 10 years.

Born in Seattle before moving to Spokane, Roeber said she didn’t grow up in a musical family, calling herself a “musical orphan.” It was her aunt’s husband, Uncle Bob, who first heard her sing around age 7 and told her she had a “gift from the Lord.”

While her parents weren’t sure how to embrace their daughter’s musical talents and passion, they were supportive and enrolled her in the Holy Names Music Center in Spokane, where she started voice lessons, piano lessons and other training at the music school. From there, she started performing for singing competitions and pageants, and attended Whitworth University on a music scholarship.

“I apprenticed with an opera company in college and did professional singing with a few companies and did summer theater in Coeur d’Alene,” Roeber said. “Music is my hobby and my love and I sang the whole time growing up.”

Roeber studied secondary education in college and met her husband, Mark Roeber, on a blind date while teaching in Spokane. The couple were married and moved to Moses Lake around 1996. She taught at Moses Lake High School from 1997 to 2000 before stepping away after the birth of her children, Samuel and Esther Roeber.

She said she always wanted to be the mom who could go on field trips, volunteer in the classroom or just be there for her kids and husband. And, Roeber’s passion for music has rubbed off on her own family, with her husband typically by her side emceeing and singing at pageant events. Her son is on a music scholarship currently at Whitworth University, while her daughter is a talented singer who recently was crowned Moses Lake Distinguished Young Woman for 2021.

After taking some time away from performing while her two kids were young, she decided to start up her own voice studio around 2009 as a way to reconnect with kids and share her passion for music.

“I missed kids, I missed changing their lives and letting them express themselves with beauty and art and doing it through singing,” Roeber said. “It was just a great way to connect with kids.”

For Roeber, performing gives her confidence, something she hopes to share with her students. She said a lot of people assume she’s an extroverted individual, but she really isn’t always that way. Once she’s on stage though, she said something turns and she’s just ready to shine in the spotlight.

Growing up, she said the band and choir kids in school weren’t always the most popular or in the limelight. But she said when her students step into the studio in her home, they become stars.

“I want them to get that feeling that there is something special and unique about you,” Roeber said. “I do recitals when I can and they get very nervous, but there is something you see in their eyes when they’re finished to say you did this, no one else did this.”

She said she encourages her students to make mistakes because showing some vulnerability can help connect a performer with the audience. When students have had to start over because of technical errors or mishaps, she said it’s always frightening, but her students, more often than not, shine once that initial pressure is off.

Roeber said she doesn’t really advertise the studio and operates mostly on word of mouth. She said she’s probably had a few hundred students at the studio and a lot of them are friends or family.

While she doesn’t perform as much professionally as she did when she was younger, Roeber said her main performance stage right now is leading worship music at the Moses Lake Alliance Church, where her husband is an associate pastor. She’s also performed with Basin Community Theatre and emcees for local and state pageants.

“I continue to perform because I think it makes me a better teacher, it gives me compassion for them (students) because it’s easy to be an armchair quarterback when you haven’t been on the field for 20 years,” Roeber said.

It was performing with the pageant circle that led her to be invited to the stage at the Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino in 2019 for the Mrs. America Pageant event. She said it was a blessing to perform on the stage where Elvis Presley once headlined.

Roeber said she’s always happy to share her talents when requested and tells her students two things: always say “yes” to singing the national anthem and always say “yes” to serve someone in need.

“If there’s someone with a funeral, I always say ‘yes,’” Roeber said. “It’s an honor to be asked in that tender time. But to bless people with singing encouragement and singing blessings over them in a troubling time is special.”