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EDUCATION
Davis Academy marks 20th
anniversary with music CD
BUI,I,IE G(l(ll,RICK
What do you get when you mix a rab
bi, a few rock musicians and a group of
talented middle schoolers? As it turns out,
an impressive debut album.
The Davis Academy recently released
“Be a Blessing,” a professionally-produced
CD of original Jewish rock that was cre
ated and performed entirely by students,
faculty and the wid
er Davis communi
ty-
With riffs that
evoke the Allman
Brothers, a collabo
ration with a soul
stirring gospel choir
and a slick music
video, this isn’t your
average school proj
ect. But its one that
has made the tight-
knit Davis commu
nity all that much
stronger.
“I’ve been ap
plying some of the
food labels to it: lo
cal, sustainable, or
ganic homegrown,”
laughs school Rab
bi Micah Lapidus,
who penned all of
the songs. “Every
thing that we need
ed in order to make
this happen miracu
lously happened to
be between 7901 Roberts Drive and 8105
Roberts Drive [the school’s Sandy Springs
address].”
The Alfred and Adele Davis Acade
my, which teaches students from kinder
garten through eighth grade, marks its
20th anniversary this year. The private
school prides itself on fostering commu
nity around the Jewish tradition—which
is very much a musical one. The CD was
a gift from the school to the communi
ty, and a contribution to Jewish culture as
a whole.
“Secular and Jewish music are part of
our school community and our commit
ment to creativity,” Lapidus said. “This
would hopefully have universal appeal but
also have a clear stamp which says Atlanta,
Ga., Davis Academy.”
For Lapidus, who spearheaded the
project, collaborating with his students
and other musi
cal faculty mem
bers was a passion
project years in the
making. The young
rabbi suffered from
writer’s block when
it came to songwrit
ing until he came to
Davis, where his ex
periences with stu
dents, faculty and
staff opened the cre
ative floodgates.
Pretty soon, he
had enough ma
terial to propose a
school-wide music
project, an idea that
was immediately
supported by mid
dle school principal
and fellow musician
Jamie Kudlats.
“I said, ‘I’ve
heard spiritual
music before and
there’s a lot of it that
I really don’t partic
ularly care for,”’ recalled Kudlats, a semi-
professional keyboardist. “So, if we’re go
ing to do this, let’s do it in such a way that
every single aspect of this album could po
tentially stand on its own.”
Davis already offers its own take on
School of Rock, a popular music program
that has students jamming to Guns N’
Roses and Metallica, so creating a rock al
bum was a logical next step. It was also a
project that could involve the entire stu
dent body in one way or another, from
the CD’s album art to vocals.
i
"... If we’re going to
do this, let’s do it in
such a way that every
single aspect of this
album could potentially
stand on its own.”
- JAMIE KUDLATS
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22 | JUNE 14 —JUNE27, 2013 | www.ReporterNewspapers.net
