“I was like a celebrity in my hometown,” Sixth Former James Gates said, as he stood up from the wooden piano bench in one of the practice rooms in the Conservatory.
He said this jokingly, but really, he was a celebrity in Iowa. The piano prodigy was featured on the news numerous times, where many marveled about how rare his talent was. Thanks to a concert he organized, his school was able to raise enough money to invest in a grand piano. He has also won numerous awards and competitions, including the Harmony for Peace Music Ambassador Competition. He has even performed at Carnegie Hall.
Now, through his viral social media pages and top-notch talent show performances, he has also made his mark here at Haverford.
Gates discovered a new way to explore his passion just a few years ago.
“During the time of COVID, my piano teacher passed away, and that was hard for me, so I started doing online concerts, and I built a little bit of a following from that,” Gates said. “At that point, I had like 5,000 followers from streams on Instagram and Reddit and stuff like that.”
He grew determined to expand his audience.
“I decided ‘this social media stuff is kinda cool,’ so I started studying up on Instagram Reels on what kind of stuff was going viral. It was pretty cringey stuff at the time, but I was like, ‘I’ll just see what I can do,’ and I made these videos that were getting a lot of views,” Gates said. “I think I had like 200 million views in 2021, and that really propelled my account.”
Gates has now amassed over 51 thousand Instagram followers and hundreds of thousands of YouTube views.
The experience has changed his perspective on “virality” and social media.
“I don’t really post much anymore. I don’t really care about going viral, but it was kind of a cool thing that I did freshman and sophomore year, just for fun,” Gates said.
“The videos that I do post are videos of me pole vaulting and playing piano, not so geared towards going viral anymore, but it still brings me a lot of joy.”
Pole vaulting has grown into a new passion of his in recent years.
“Freshman year during our track warmup laps, I would run on the retaining wall instead of running on the track, which was pretty risky as the wall is thin. Mr. Kolade noticed, ‘You should do pole vault, James,’ because pole vaulting is a risky sport,” Gates said. “That’s how I fell in love with the sport.”
Now with a personal record of fourteen feet and a first-place prize from the Pennsylvania Independent Schools Athletic Association, it is safe to say Gates has grown very skilled.
Gates’ coach, Mr. Jesse Ohm, who works at Penncrest High School, has been working alongside him for most of his pole vaulting career.
“In pole vault, it’s all about the heights you’re able to achieve, and he’s been able to progress over the years for sure,” Ohm said. “I’ve also seen him grow in a maturity factor as well in his ability to assess where he is and gauge the drills and the work ethics that he has to put in.”
Ohm also admires Gates for his ability to improve after failure.
“Like any sport or talent, there’s always ups and downs and roadblocks, but he always perseveres,” Ohm added. “Even when he doesn’t do his best or as good as he hoped, he’ll always get right back up and work hard to take another stab at it.”
Gates most enjoys pole vaulting because of its adrenaline rush.
“It’s a big contrast from music, but it’s definitely thrilling,” Gates said. “I enjoy the excitement of sprinting down the runway and planting into the ground with a pole.”
Pole vaulting and piano remain at the forefront of his passions, but he is also a talented ceramics artist and golfer.
While many might think balancing these time-consuming passions would be difficult, Gates seems to do it with ease. His brother, First Former Noah Gates, admires that.
“I think he balances it by not prioritizing his hobbies like pole vaulting and piano. He makes sure to get his work done. If he can improve in his classes, he will do that, while also improving in piano and pole vaulting,” Noah said.
Moving forward, Gates is unsure of what is in store. He wants to continue pole vaulting, but maybe not in the long run.
“I’m going to be doing pole vaulting in college, but after that I probably won’t,” Gates said. “I might just do it as a hobby, or maybe being able to coach would be something that I would be interested in.”
Music and piano, however, will stay with him forever.
“Music is something that I plan to do for my whole life… Whatever facet I choose to continue music in, I know it’ll be a rewarding experience for me. Whether that be performing for friends, playing for church, doing concerts, or anything else,” Gates said.
Performing has always been at the forefront of music for him, so it makes sense that he hopes to keep it that way.
“I don’t care how many people I’m performing for, I just enjoy performing,” he said. “It is just nice to know that people are enjoying the music that I am spreading.”
At Gates’ most recent performance, at this year’s talent show, he brought a new element into his performance: his voice. His performance of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car” was filled with raw emotion.
Now a member of the Notables, Gates has been taking voice lessons for a few years, enjoying the vulnerability that comes with singing.
“With singing and lyrics, I can express a lot,” he said. “You still can with piano, but I think through singing you can be more specific with the lyrics and whatnot and the stories you tell, and that’s why for the talent show I wanted to sing—because it’s my senior year and I’ve never really sung that much in public before.”
Gates was up to the challenge.
“I had never sung solo in front of the whole school, so that was something I wanted to do,” Gates said. “I practiced a lot for it, I was really nervous, which I wouldn’t have been if I just played the piano like I do every year… but I wanted to try something different, just for myself, I guess.”
While he has already released multiple songs onto streaming platforms (earning over 300,000 streams combined), he plans to improve his craft more in his songwriting-themed senior project; it will be exciting to see where he goes creatively.
Throughout all of Gates’ successes, he remains humble.
“His integrity is probably his best quality,” Noah Gates said. “He does the right thing even if no one is watching him, and that’s a great trait.”
Mr. Ohm marvels at Gates’ overall attitude and disposition.
“His personality is one that is rare. He’s very polite, very caring. I’ve never seen a mean bone in his body… He is somebody you can certainly get along with, and his road to success has never been on the backs of somebody else,” Ohm said. “He’s always going out of his way to help others, and I find that to be very admirable.”
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