New Choral Song to Benefit the CJD Foundation

Jim Papoulis — internationally known choral music composer, conductor and humanitarian — and Mike Greenly, BILLBOARD-charted lyricist and former VP of Marketing for Avon Products, Inc., announce their newest collaboration. “I Know” is a song of hope and inspiration that is expected to be performed by choralists around the world.

The duo’s previous compositions benefit several worthy non-profit organizations. Sales of “How Many Christmases” produces funding for the Foundation for Small Voices (http://www.foundationforsmallvoices.org) and The Young People’s Chorus of New York City (http://www.ypc.org).

Sales of “We Can Plant a Forest” shares Jim’s and Mike’s royalties with Trees for the Future, an award-winning organization that helps grow sustainable, renewable forests across the planet. Earnings from this song — available both as an iTunes download and as sheet music — have already enabled 30,000 new trees to be planted on earth.

“I Know” will benefit an organization of deep personal significance to the composer, especially. It is published in memory of Stephanie Martine Papoulis, a victim in 2007 of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD.) This terrible degenerative neurological disorder (brain disease) is an incurable and invariably fatal disorder.

In memory of Stephanie, the songwriters are donating a portion of all royalties from the sale of this song via any medium to the Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Foundation. The CJD Foundation is widely honored and appreciated for the support, information and guidance it offers to those dealing with CJD (http://www.cjdfoundation.org).

When Mike conceived of “I Know”, he was mindful of the faith that Stephanie always said she had in the future of his and Jim’s songwriting partnership. “Stephanie was, quite simply, one of the most impressive — I’d have to say, ‘brilliant’ — people I’ve ever known,” Mike says.

(Read Mike’s Blog Post on the Release of This Song)

Still fresh in his mind, as well, was the loss of his father to Alzheimer’s Disease and his mother to pneumonia as a consequence of her radiation treatment for breast cancer. The first line of the song, “I can’t foretell if darker skies will come and change my life” were, for him, an encapsulation of the way some of our most terrible moments in life are “surprises” — like the sudden onset of CJD for Stephanie.

Jim, who is known for the passion and skill he brings to composing — and to using his musical gifts to raise funds that help disadvantaged children around the world — was the co-founder with Stephanie of the Foundation for Small Voices. Jim and Mike agreed that for this particular title, however, royalties would be applied toward the same organization that had been so helpful to him and his family in dealing with their and Stephanie’s suffering.

Florence Kranitz, President of The CJD Foundation, describes Jim’s and Mike’s new song as, “an elegant and a beautiful tribute to a beautiful young woman.” She notes that sales of “I Know” will help the Foundation provide emotional support to individuals and families dealing with CJD and other prion diseases, as well as practical information to caregivers.

When producing the song — performed by a group of young singers provided by the Young People’s Chorus of New York City — Jim decided to have this tribute to his beloved Stephanie be even more personal for him and his family. As a result, Jim involved his three children — Caryl (“Piper”), age 19; Claire, age 17, and Demitri, age 12 — each of whom are accomplished singers and musicians in their own right. Each has a special solo moment in “I Know”, in addition to the chorus from YPC.

In looking back on the shocking loss of Stephanie to CJD — and the journey from that time that he and his family have been on — Jim comments on the closing choral refrain of the song. “It applies to me,” he says. “It applies to my kids. And I wish its spirit for everyone.”

Those words are these: “I know that I can hope … I know that I can love … I know that I can grow … This I know. I’ll remember what I know.”
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Audio Sample: I Know

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“I Know” is now available on iTunes, and will be published as sheet music in the spring. It’s a song that gives me a poignant kind of joy. I am honored to be Jim’s partner … and we are both honored, in turn, to partner with The CJD Foundation.

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