Matthew Weaver spends four or five nights a week doing what he likes best: performing.

You could say his ears— perfectly tuned for music — send messages through his fingers to play 17 instruments. Not at once, of course, but easily switching from banjo to accordion or piano to guitar.

Matthew began playing the piano at age 3, not banging the keys as most children do, but playing tunes with two fingers until he quickly learned to stretch his imagination and fingers to add chords.

When his parents first heard him play, they thought it was their daughter Mary Jean practicing her music lessons. “Mary Jean hated to practice, but they had to chase me away from that old piano in Pennsylvania,” Matthew says.

His first stage appearance came soon after, and he’s been performing ever since. By age 7, he was playing guitar and, at 11, he played 12 instruments.

After studying music for several years, Matthew says he sight-reads fairly well now. He’s known more for “playing by ear.” He recognizes the key in which a song is written and after hearing a tune once or twice, can play it himself.

His parents, Sterling and Barbara Weaver, do not play any instruments, although they come from musically talented families who have entertained for 70 years. They support and encourage Matthew, as did his grandmothers, Mary Weaver and Ruth Frable, who both played piano.

The first generation of those families are dead, Matthew explains. The second and third generations continue performing at a music theater in the Pocono mountains of Pennsylvania. Lead vocalist and guitarist Tommy Schaeffer, Matthew’s uncle, heads the group called Blue Mountain Ramblers, which also tours the western states and Canada and appears on the Grand Ole Opry stage.

Matthew, who never joined the family musicians before he moved to Rowan County, hopes to return to Pennsylvania and perform a few times with his relatives.

He left his home state at age 11, when his father came south to find work. His parents, Matthew and older sister Mary Jean settled in eastern Rowan 16-1/2 years ago.

Matthew’s soft Southern accent rarely indicates his Pennsylvania Dutch and Yankee heritage. Because of his keen hearing, he often picks up accents of people he’s around. He does not intend to mock anyone and unconsciously mimics their talk. “I can’t figure it out, either,” he says. “I’m just myself.”

From the North to the South, Matthew grew up listening and playing traditional mountain music. “ Bluegrass, gospel, mountain and hillbilly, that’s what I cut my teeth on,” he says. Bill Monroe, who renamed hillbilly to bluegrass around 1939 and Ralph Stanley paved the way for other performers in the field, says Matthew.

People liken Matthew’s piano style to that of Floyd Cramer. “I picked up that style when I was a kid, before I heard Floyd Cramer,” he says. “I was a teen-age before I heard Cramer. I always wanted to be myself. Everyone has a touch of someone else’s style.”

Matthew listens to music all day, mostly tapes of Celtic, Cajun, folk and Big Band swing. “I hate jazz and blues and all that other junk being played today,” he says.

He does not care for the newer country music sounds, preferring instead Allison Kraus and the deep swing, honky-tonk and bluegrass twist of the banjo, fiddle and guitar-playing Dixie Chicks. And he likes Ricky Scaggs since his comeback has done wonders for bluegrass, Matthew says.

“I can put down an instrument for six months and come back playing it like before,”he says. “I very seldom practice because I am practically playing four or five nights a week; that’s practice in itself.”

With his boyish appearance and enthusiastic manner, audiences notice Matthew even when he’s performing with other musicians. “I am never happy until I am on stage. I love to see people smile, laugh and cry,” he says.

He recently returned from Dollywood, where he was a one-man act, singing and playing. “It was exciting,” he says. Most of the time, he performs with other musicians who team so well it’s like the group was his own band, says Matthew.

He and Graham Carlton have entertained as a bluegrass duo for about two years. “He’s like my big brother,” says Matthew.

Graham, Matthew, Becky Lippard, Jenny Carroll, Barry Dyson, Alana Tomlin Denton and Darrell Brown from “Smoke on the Mountain,” a musical from the Piedmont Players Theatre’s 1994 season, come together again for the sequel, “Sanders Family Christmas” which opens Dec. 7 at the Meroney Theater.

“Everybody is so versatile,”Matthew says of the cast. “I have respect for the talent of the other cast members.”

As son Dennis, he plays mandolin, banjo, fiddle, accordion and piano.

“Sanders Family Christmas” will be Matthew’s 10th association with Piedmont Players since he auditioned in 1994. He thinks the Christmas show will be greater than “Smoke on the Mountain.”

This summer when Piedmont Players announced its season, the “Smoke” cast members were overjoyed knowing they would come together for “Sanders Family Christmas.”

“Rehearsing now, it’s like we are a real blood family,” says Matthew.

They have a following across the region, and fans who call them “The Smokeheads” can hardly wait until the show begins. Piedmont Players, anticipating another sell-out, added two matinees to its regular eight-day schedule.

Matthew says he has loved acting all his life, but most of his stage experience was as a singer and instrumentalist.

“Smoke” was one of the best things that ever happened to him, he says. “The theater here has given me a lot of experience. Reid Leonard taught me a lot. I still have a lot to learn. This is a stepping stone to the future.”

Matthew had ups and downs in “Smoke on the Mountain.” His grandmother Mary Weaver, who was coming to see him perform, died three weeks before the show opened. A true stage trooper, Matthew took no time off and felt her presence during the production. “She was with me opening night,” he says.

Much to the dismay of costumer Greer Lampert, Matthew split his pants several times during “Smoke on the Mountain.”

When he was 16 and performing for a crowd in a large auditorium, all four legs of the piano bench fell apart. Matthew tumbled to the floor. “I sat there dumbfounded,”he remembers. “The audience laughed. I laughed. I played the rest of the show standing up.”

Sometimes accidents happen and you go on as if it’s part of the act, he says. “If I got upset when I fell off the stage or split my pants, I would have quit a long time ago.”

Being asked for autographs was a real bonus for Matthew after “Smoke on the Mountain,” which was so popular the cast added extra shows both at the Meroney and at a local church.

He also met Mike Craver, the show’s musical arranger, who directed “Smoke” on Broadway before the Players booked it for Salisbury and hired Craver to coach the local cast.

“Mike Craver helped me and is one of my best friends in the music world,”Matthew says. “His talent is awesome, both his singing and writing ability. He’s played around the world.”

Formerly with Red Clay Ramblers, Craver returns to Salisbury in January with his off-Broadway show, “Oil City Symphony,” a special fund-raiser for the Meroney Theater. Craver is known for “Pump Boys and Dinettes” and “Cowgirls,” both favorites with Piedmont Players audiences.

Matthew was not on stage in “Cowgirls,” but he had an important role as instrument director with the Players production in 1999. “I taught six women to play 10 instruments in five weeks. It was a challenge. It was fun.”

He’s enrolled at Rowan-Cabarrus Community College and plans to continue his education to study music. “My main thrust is performing, but I’d like to compose on the side,” he says. He wants to compose for handbells and choirs and write scores for musicals. “I’m not a lyricist. People send me a set of words, and I scratch out a basic melody line in about 30 minutes.” He realizes computer programs can churn out music for songwriters, but he wants to write original compositions.

Last year, Matthew was featured in a country music magazine. He’s won three bluegrass awards and has a first-place mandolin competition award. In October, he received a special judges’ award for vocal and guitar at the Fiddlers Convention. “It’s nice if you win,” he says, “but I’m doing it for exposure.”

He used earned income to record two cassettes and a recently released CD, “Morning has Broken,” featuring piano instrumentals of country, gospel, traditional and standards, what he calls “the best music ever written.”

Matthew collects miniature pianos, notebooks, pencils, music boxes and anything else with designs of pianos, his all-time favorite instrument.

He’s served as interim music director at Sacred Heart Catholic Church since August. He’s worked at numerous other churches, but Sacred Heart is his favorite because of the music that resembles traditional folk songs, he says. “I feel more at home there.”

Since the first of September, he’s refused engagements until February. “I’m booked solid, as much as I can handle, if not more. I haven’t stopped since March.”

Next year, he’s taking time off to record a bluegrass CD.

“My goal is to perform.” Hollywood and Broadway are not in his dream plans. He aims for the musical theaters at Pigeon Forge, Tenn., and Branson, Mo.

“It was easier to get jobs years ago,” says the 27-year-old who has performed in 25 states.

He never gets butterflies while on stage and only gets nervous when playing for weddings. He recalls when a bride was 30 minutes late. “I played 50 solid minutes, everything on the program, other songs I knew and made up my own music.” He seldom accepts offers for weddings now.

“Everybody in Rowan County has been wonderful to me,”Matthew says. “I’ve met so many people. You would never dream how many people in this county play music. I have been blessed. I never want to come to the place where I think I am better than anyone else. If I did, I would hang it up in a heartbeat. I have seen others get the big head. It kills them. It ruins them.

“Music is my life,”he says. “Music is my goal. I don’t want it to be just a business. I thank God for my ability to play and share my talents with people. The right door at the right time will open for me.”