By Gabi Poisson ’17, Staff Writer

Jim Papoulis is an award-winning composer and conductor who has travelled around the world with international artists, composing music that combines a multitude of cultures and music traditions to create a “global community” of music.  He has performed on live television, scored films; he’s worked with Aretha Franklin and Beyoncé, and if you’ve been a careful observer of Newark Academy’s concert choir rep over the years—which I’m sure you have—you’d find Papoulis’s name on the program almost every year.  His song, Imbakwa, a rousing anthem written for an organization that uses the arts as empowerment for children, has been performed twice on the NA stage in recent memory, and will be performed again this fall.  You might also remember the Academy Voices Women Choir singing—and dancing, a new staple of concert choir’s performances—Panta Rhei, a tricky and rhythmic piece, translating to “all things are in flux.”  Basically, in the choral world, both here and globally, Jim Papoulis is a well-known and respected name.

On Monday, September 26^th, Papoulis, himself, visited our school, hosting a songwriting workshop for the Concert Choir in which, by the end of the night, he will have created a completely new composition written for and inspired by us at Newark Academy.  Papoulis will also be visiting five other local high schools to do the same.  The whole event will culminate at a festival with all the other schools at Ridge High School in what some fondly call “Choralpalooza.”  We will all sing our original songs, ending the day with a group singing of the Papoulis classic: Imbakwa.

Talking to the choir’s leadership, President Chloe Yu, 17’, and Vice President, Indiana Rich, 17’, both highlighted the hope that unity would come out of the process.  Indiana “thinks it’s really unifying not only for other choirs, but for our group too.  I think it’s really amazing to be connected to everyone on a musical and personal level.”  Chloe added that she believes “it’s really special that we’re having a unique song written just for us and just about us. It is going to really bring the choral community together.”  Hopefully, this process will work to inspire our choir and the larger school community.

The Winter Choral Concert will be on November 30^th so mark your calendars, or even better—join the choir.