MANCHESTER – It started with the beat, played on a djembe, then a simple two-note melody. Next came some basic lyrics shouted out from the students in the crowd. In the space of a few minutes, the roomful of 3rd and 4th grade chorus members had written its first song. Not a bad way to head into a lunch break.
Choruses from 8 of the Manchester School District’s elementary schools came together Wednesday for a special event – a Choral Festival with renowned composer and music educator Jim Papoulis. Susan Wilkes, the former music teacher at Weston Elementary, worked with Papoulis in 2020 and felt now – with all district fifth-graders now in middle schools – was a great time to bring elementary choruses together.
“We tend to kind of lose a lot of kids when they go to middle school, especially in choral programs, because they find other things to do and stuff,” Wilkes said. “So I thought, what if we built more community here, and made this something that they could look back on and meet kids from other schools when they go to those bigger schools?”
District Fine Arts Director Ed Doyle was on board to organize, and Papoulis loved the idea of bringing the students together. It also helped that he had a connection in the Queen City.
“Susan asked if I was ever in the Manchester area, and I said, ‘Well, actually, I have a daughter who lives here,’” said Papoulis, who founded his Foundation for Small Voices 25 years ago. “I do a lot of choral festivals – I travel about 40 times a year all over the United States and over Europe and South Africa and South America and Africa everywhere. So I'm working with children constantly, and choral music has kind of taken over my world. So when she asked if I would come up and do a sort of a district wide workshop, I said, absolutely, because I believe in what it can do to people.”
Choral groups have long been a fixture at high schools and middle schools in the District, and they are growing at the elementary school level. Papoulis said a large-scale event such as this one is a building block and learning opportunity for students.
“Being involved in a larger choir where it's not only you and your classroom, I think it's really important socially for them to experience that and also for them to experience the composer teaching them the song,” Papoulis said. “There's something a little bit different about that, and I think that's what socially gets them out and helps them realize what music can do to their lives. And I think it's super important.”
You can read more about Papoulis at https://foundationforsmallvoices.org/jim-papoulis/.