The Brooklyn-based Jacqueline Hopkins Choir on Sunday, March 1, headlined a \u201cjoyful and meaningful\u201d Black History Month Concert at St. Gabriel\u2019s Episcopal Church on Hawthorne Street in Brooklyn.<\/p>\n
According to Chris Bryant, the church’s organist and music minister, it was the church\u2019s second annual concert celebrating what Bryant described as \u201cthe rich choral and instrumental works of African American composers,\u201d including Jamaican-American composer Jacqueline Hopkins, founder and president of the choir named after her.<\/p>\n
Hopkins told Caribbean Life<\/strong> that her choir performed two movements from her 10-movement Requiem, entitled, \u201cThe Hopkins Requiem.\u201d<\/p>\n She said the songs were \u201cRex Tremendae\u201d and \u201cJerusalem\u201d that was sung in Latin.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel honored to have been recognized as a composer at this special event,\u201d Hopkins said. \u201c’It is a dream come true as an artist.\u201d<\/p>\n She said other highlights of the concert included performances by Ajani Shortt, a 10th<\/sup> grader at Medgar Evers College Preparatory School, who played \u201cBe Alive\u201d by Beyonc\u00e9 on steel pan; and Medgar Evers College Preparatory Dance Company, who dance while the poem \u201cNew Day\u201d was read by poet Amanda Gorman.<\/p>\n \u201cThe poem asserts that we \u2018forever overcome\u2019\u201d, Hopkins said.<\/p>\n Andrea Wesley, the church’s administrative assistant, said that the event was Bryant’s \u201cbrainchild,\u201d and that 98 percent of the church\u2019s approximate 500-member congregation is of Caribbean heritage.<\/p>\n The world premiere of The Jacqueline Hopkins Choir took place on Oct. 12, 2025 at the nearby Fenimore Street United Methodist Church (FSUMC), the church of Hopkins\u2019 \u00a0childhood, where her Jamaican-born mother, her Grenville, N.C.-born father, and her siblings had worshipped every Sunday.<\/p>\n At the time, Hopkins told Caribbean Life<\/strong> that the event was \u201ca very moving experience on many levels.\u201d<\/p>\n She said she felt \u201cgreat nostalgia, as well as pride,\u201d in launching her choir\u2019s \u201cworld premiere\u201d at the 136-year-old church.<\/p>\n \u201cI felt that my parents were looking on from heaven and applauding along with the congregation,\u201d Hopkins said. \u201cIn addition, I felt excited to share my music with the public.\u201d<\/p>\n She said the premiere was \u201can overwhelming success because the crowd not only clapped enthusiastically, and for a long period of time, but several people also screamed with glee.\u201d<\/p>\n Hopkins said \u201cthis was only the beginning,\u201d as she has a goal to perform all 10 movements of her Requiem at as many churches as possible in the near future.<\/p>\n On Aug. 28, 2022, Hopkins said she sang excerpts of her work at FSUMC in memory of her parents.<\/p>\n More recently, in August 2025, she said she established The Jacqueline Hopkins Choir.<\/p>\n Hopkins, who has lived in Prospect-Lefferts Gardens, Brooklyn her entire life, said she is the \u201cproud daughter\u201d of the late Harold and Louise Hopkins, and was also \u201cproud\u201d of her Jamaican heritage.<\/p>\n Hopkins said she first studied music with Louvina G. Pointer, mother of classical violinist Noel Pointer, as a member of the choir at Brooklyn ‘s I.S. 61.<\/p>\n She said she continued to study music at Hunter College, as a member of the choir, under the direction of maestro Paul F. Mueller.<\/p>\n \u201cIf I never was in the choir under Paul F. Mueller, I would never have written my own Requiem,\u201d Hopkins said. \u201cIt would be impossible. He inspired me.<\/p>\n \u201cIf there was no Paul F. Mueller, there would not be a Hopkins Requiem,\u201d she stressed, stating that Prof. Mueller taught her Mozart\u2019s Requiem and Faur\u00e9\u2019s Requiem.<\/p>\n Hopkins said the works she performed at Hunter College included the Requiem Masses of both Gabriel Faur\u00e9 and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.<\/p>\n At the height of the pandemic, Hopkins said she spent two years composing her own Requiem entitled, “The Hopkins Requiem.”<\/p>\n The two selections The Jacqueline Hopkins Choir performed, to rave reviews, during Worship Service at FSUMC, on Oct. 12, were the same as at St. Gabriels\u2019s \u2013 \u201cRex \u00a0Tremendae\u201d and \u201cJerusalem.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Brooklyn-based Jacqueline Hopkins Choir on Sunday, March 1, headlined a \u201cjoyful and meaningful\u201d Black History Month Concert at St. Gabriel\u2019s Episcopal Church on Hawthorne Street in Brooklyn. According to Chris Bryant, the church’s organist and music minister, it was the church\u2019s second annual concert celebrating what Bryant described as \u201cthe rich choral and instrumental […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/islandflavaradio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/islandflavaradio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/islandflavaradio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/islandflavaradio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/islandflavaradio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/islandflavaradio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5924\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/islandflavaradio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/islandflavaradio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/islandflavaradio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}