Truman Middle School’s choir classes received a visit from a special guest last month: prominent composer Jim Papoulis. What started as a chance encounter over dinner became an interactive experience for the young choir students on Jan. 22-23.
It began when Truman choir teacher Paula Dean attended last year’s Music Educators Convention. Papoulis — who has worked with famous musical artists like Beyoncé, Celine Dion and Aretha Franklin — was doing workshops for teachers, which Dean called “extremely interesting and helpful.” They met in between sessions, when they sat together as two solo diners at dinner.
“We just started talking,” Dean said. “I told him, ‘Hey, we did one of your songs (in class) last year.’ He was like, ‘Oh, really?’ I started telling him about my choirs and my program, and he was really genuinely interested.”
Papoulis explained that he does a workshop where he comes to classrooms and helps them write an original song. From there, Dean and Papoulis began to work together to make it happen for Dean’s eighth grade class — the group of students who had, the year prior, sang a Papoulis piece for class.
The composer originally intended to just visit with the eighth graders, but according to Dean, he enjoyed his time at Truman so much that he stayed to speak with her other classes, too.
“The kids were so fascinated because he’s done songs with Snoop Dogg and Beyoncé,” Dean said. “They thought that was amazing.”
While he talked with the other classes, too, Papoulis spent his time with Dean’s eighth grade class composing an original song. Dean said she was surprised at the specificity of what her students wanted for their song — “something classical at first, starts slow and meaningful, but speeds up.” Papoulis plunked on a piano as they figured out a melody.
When writing the lyrics, Papoulis asked the students what they wanted the song to be about. They landed on a theme of being heard and seen for who they are. Some of the lyrics were: “Standing for each other / Let us hear your voice / Now is the time to lift each other up / Sing our song forever / Show us who you are / Now is the time to lift each other up.”
“That’s the theme they carried into the song. Why is there this cruelty to each other, when we should all be respectful to each other? And I had this proud mama moment,” Dean said. “I was like, ‘Aw! Listen to them!’”
On the second day, Papoulis returned to their class to write another verse, and then they got to recording. He had a professional recording app on his phone that he used while the students sang.
“What I really liked is, he was like, ‘I work with professional singers all the time, and we get right down to business. Do I have your permission to treat you like a professional singer?’” Dean said. “(The students) were like, ‘Yes.’”
Now, with their voices recorded, Papoulis will return to his studio in New York City, where he will professionally mix the song and return it to Dean’s class. Dean says that, if Papoulis thinks the song is good enough, there’s a chance he could even publish it and dedicate it to them.
Dean received a text message from Papoulis after his two days spent in the classroom. She read it aloud: “You’ve clearly given these students a place of openness and community, and it’s so inspiring to me. Thank you for welcoming me. I’m totally inspired by you and your amazing world. You’re changing lives, and I’m so happy to be even a small part of that. In fact, you’ve made me think about when I retire, maybe I should teach middle school.”