Annual fall choral recital honors legacy of Paula ‘Delight’ Jobe
Women’s Chorale alongside reVOLution dedicate its performance in memory of beloved member Paula “Delight” Jobe on Nov. 3.
Paula “Delight” Jobe unexpectedly passed earlier this year, but her impact on the University of Tennessee, Knoxville community is still felt.
Jobe, a UT librarian for 38 years, was known for taking her lunch break three times a week to participate in the traditional women’s choir, Women’s Chorale.
“She was a founding member of the group,” Mitchell Moore, Women’s Chorale director, said. “She had been in the choir since its inception; longer than I have been alive.”
Jobe created a sense of sisterhood through her unparalleled background and experience within Women’s Chorale.
“Delight was incredible at taking care of the women around her,” Kirstine Andersen, former Women’s Chorale member and current reVOLution director, said. “Honestly, Delight completely embodied that word because she was just as big of a cheerleader in our lives as we were in hers.”
In order to honor such a positive and supportive member, a piece of music was commissioned on her behalf and debuted at the annual fall recital on Nov. 3.
“We were all shaken as a choral department, so we had an alumnus of the university and graduate choral conducting program, David Pegel, compose a piece of music entitled Delight in her honor,” Andersen said. “He took different bible verses and incorporated anything that had the word delight in it since that was her name.”
Jobe’s family received her choir attire.
“Earlier in the semester, we found Delight’s necklace that she had put it in a bag with her name because she had every intention of returning this year,” Moore said. “As a way to commemorate her, we got it shadowboxed and gave it to the family.”
With her ability to shape Women’s Chorale as well as the choir program as a whole, Jobe’s legacy of commitment and encouragement will continue on.
Women’s Chorale, alongside ReVOLution, Men’s Chorale, Concert Choir, Chamber Singers, VOLume and UT singers, next performance is the combined winter choral concert, Dec. 3 at 8 p.m. EST in Cox Auditorium.
Edited by Grace Goodacre and Ainsley Kelso
Featured photo by Chris McDougal
