PARSIPPANY — Thanks to a generous grant from the Parsippany Education Foundation, the secondary choirs of Parsippany which included over 450 students joined together in an afternoon and evening to celebrate singing in Parsippany.
Parsippany welcomed a Cappella expert, Thomas Paster from Northern Highlands Regional High School located in Allendale to work with Parsippany’s singers for the day.
This grand event also included his thirteen voice A Capella group, Highlands Voices.
The day’s events culminated in a colossal Parsippany Choral Festival held at the Parsippany Hills auditorium, where parents, relatives, teachers and friends were treated to performances which included the Central Middle School choir, led by Director Adam Aguano, Brooklawn Middle School Choir, led director Tiffany Schiffano, Parsippany High School Choir, led by director Christine Wilson, Parsippany Hills High School Choir, led by Director Kathleen Muha, as well as Highlands Voices as the featured guest singers.
Parsippany’s Central Middle School director Kristin Capuccino served as piano accompanist for a numbers of the performances. The concert finished with an impressive collaboration of all choirs combined premiering an arrangement of “This is Me” from The Greatest Showman arranged by Thomas Paster.
As Mr. Paster affirmed, Parsippany is a vibrant community with amazingly talented young musicians who are thriving in an outstanding music program! Thomas Paster is the director of vocal music at Northern Highlands Regional High School in Allendale. He is also the director of the Advanced Pop Vocal Ensemble at William Paterson University. His Northern Highlands a cappella group Highlands Voices was featured on the Lifetime TV show Pitch Slapped.
They were the 2015 A Cappella Educators Assoc. National Champions, the 2014 ICHSA National Champions, and they have won the Mid-Atlantic States A Cappella Championship six times. He is also an active composer/arranger/ensemble coach and has taught classes on contemporary a cappella and a cappella arranging for ACDA, NAfME, NJMEA, the National A Cappella Convention, the Boston Sings A Cappella Festival, and he founded the Highlands A Cappella Festival.
Mr. Paster holds a BM from Ithaca College and an MS from the University of Scranton. He is a recipient of the Yale University Distinguished Music Educator Award and is proud to be the NJ representative for the A Cappella Education Association. Highlands Voices are from Northern Highlands Regional High School in Allendale. The “Voices” as they are Called around the school, were featured on the Lifetime TV show Pitch Slapped. They were selected to compete in the 2018 National A Cappella Convention in Memphis, TN. They were the winners of the first-ever National A Cappella Convention Competition in 2015, the ICHSA High School A Cappella National Champions in 2014 and ICHSA Mid-Atlantic Champions in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 & 2016. They have performed workshops for NAfME, NJMEA, AEA, ACDA, Bergen Teen Arts, and host the annual Highlands A Cappella Festival which attracts some of the biggest a cappela coaches in the world to be instructors. Follow them on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube @highlandsvoices.”
