MARIETTA - Arie Motschman has been making a living playing music in churches for nearly her entire life. The 20-year veteran organist at First United Methodist Church in Marietta began her first job in middle school playing piano for a Christian Scientist church for just $2 a week.

Years later, after graduating with both a bachelor's and masters degree in music and receiving a Fulbright grant to study and play the organ in Germany, Motschman began her full-time career as a church organist. In 1989, she and her family moved to Marietta, and Motschman began playing the organ and helping conduct the music ministry for First United Methodist Church of Marietta.

Today Motschman not only plays the organ for the church's worship services, but she also runs several music ministry programs, including the Cherub Choir for 4- and 5-year-olds, the bell choir, a kindergarten weekday music class, a music class for parents and toddlers and the drama ministry.

The organist has had such an impact on the First United Methodist Church of Marietta community that she will be honored on Sunday for her 20 years of service to the church. Motschman will be playing a special organ piece at both worship services at 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. and then conducting a recital at the church at 2 p.m. A reception in her honor will take place at 10 a.m.

Motschman, who began playing the piano at age 8, said she quickly developed a love for the organ just by going to church. After a few years of anxious waiting, Motschman moved to the organ when she was 16 years old and never looked back.

She began to entertain thoughts of a career in organ playing when she was studying music at Salem College in Winston-Salem, N.C.

"Probably going to Salem College and the quality of the organs there and the quality of the music instruction," Motschman said. "And you know, sometimes you fall into things because you can do them. I had the ability and just the interest and love of music - it just fit."

Motschman said her favorite part about playing the organ is the variety of sounds the instrument makes.

"From the softest you can imagine - ethereal sounds - to the big bombastic, heart-pounding-type music. The symphonic capabilities and just the variety. Now the coordination is a bit of a challenge sometimes, and that's always hard to transition (from the piano)," the organ aficionado said.

But playing the organ isn't her only passion; Motschman said she also loves introducing young children to music. And this is apparent in her enthusiastic teaching style.

Motschman is as comfortable behind the organ as she is in front of a class of 4- and 5-year-olds in her weekly Cherub Choir practices. The children hang on their teacher's every melodic word and follow her as she dances around the room with a colored scarf, instructing the students to sit down and stand up with the color of their scarves is called.

In Motschman's Musikgarten program, mothers, fathers and caregivers bring their toddlers to class several mornings a week to enjoy some one-on-one time, devoted to singing and playing games.

"They come because music is such an integral part of connecting things in your brain and just learning to explore the world," Motschman said. "A lot of times kids are toted around in these carriers for most of the time and this is a chance for one-on-one interaction. No stroller, no carrier, no television, no computer, one-on-one, and it's a really special."

Throughout her 20 years of service to First United Methodist, Motschman estimates that she has played for nearly 1,000 weddings, about 300 funerals and taught at least 1,000 children.

"Some of these people are second-generation," Motschman said of her students through the years. "I had them when they were 4 and I've managed to play for their weddings, and now they're having their children baptized."

As for Motschman's favorite memory over the last two decades, she said she really couldn't chose just one. She said she has enjoyed both teaching and playing for such a supportive and friendly congregation.

"There's something wonderful about every group, there's something trying about every group. It's just been a wonderful place to be and a wonderful place to work," Motschman said.

On Sunday, the celebration for Motschman will begin at the 9 a.m. worship service with a reception following at 10 a.m. in the church's hospitality room. The organist will also play a special piece at the 11 a.m. service. At 2 p.m. she will have a recital in the sanctuary. Motschman will be joined on stage for a recital by her daughter, Mary, who is the principal violist in the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra, and one of her adult organ students. Along with the organ, Motschman said she also plans to play the harpsichord. The program will feature music from composers such as Johann Sebastian Bach, Joseph Hayden and Cesar Franck.

Of the celebration on Sunday, Motschman said she is most looking forward to being able to visit and reconnect with students she has taught throughout the years and friends in the congregation.

"Well, as an organist you're back up here behind this big instrument every Sunday, and it will be really nice to be able to be in a reception and actually have conversations with people and talk with people," Motschman said.