Cathedral organist (1990–2003) In 1990, Paul Halley resigned as organist of New York City's
Cathedral of St. John the Divine to pursue his solo career. Papadakos, who had been Halley's assistant, succeeded him as Cathedral Organist, becoming the first woman to be appointed organist at the largest
Gothic-style cathedral in the world. When she returned to Reno, Nevada, for a performance in 1995, a
Reno Gazette-Journal critic called her a "sensational organist" and "among the toasts of Manhattan". In the wake of the
September 11, 2001, terrorist attack in Manhattan, Papadakos performed in "An Evening of Peace" gathering at nearby
Riverside Church, joining other activists including Vietnamese Buddhist monk
Thích Nhất Hạnh,
Judy Collins, and
Paul Winter. The concert's theme was criticized afterwards by
Kay S. Hymowitz and
Harry Stein, writing in
The Wall Street Journal. The columnists decried what they called "multiculturalism, the enemy within," saying it was at variance with the majority of American opinion favoring a sustained military response. On the morning of December 18, 2001, a
five-alarm fire began in the cathedral's gift shop, located in the north
transept. Although the Great Organ's oak casework and its thousands of pipes were not consumed by the conflagration, the organ console and pipes were blanketed in ash and soot, rendering the instrument unplayable. The resulting
Pompeii: The Musical premiered in November 2005, in
Wilmington, North Carolina. After opening night at the Thalian Center for the Performing Arts, successor to historic
Thalian Hall, the performances were sold out for its two-week run, breaking 150-year-old box office records as more than six thousand attended, forcing the theatre to open its rarely used third tier for overflow seating.
Pompeii, later re-titled
BACCHUS, also won
Encore Magazine's "Best Theatre Production of 2006" Award.
Silent film accompanist Papadakos makes frequent appearances providing improvised organ music to accompany
silent film screenings, a genre she began to play at the Cathedral when asked to fill in as a last-minute substitute for theater organist
Lee Erwin. In the early 2000s, Papadakos started her annual
Halloween Horror Tour, which brings silent film's classics, such as
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and
Phantom of the Opera to life on the world's pipe organs. Her silent film appearances have included such classics as a rendition of the
Hunchback of Notre Dame at a New Year's Eve 2011 celebration at
Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, and
Nosferatu at Kansas City's
Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts organ in 2014. Using fictional characters, such as the wicked "Fire Witch", to portray global warming, the book seeks to present these issues in an understandable fantasy appealing to a broad audience. Well received by the climate science community and
STEM teachers, it was turned into a Science and Literature curriculum for middle school students,
The Kingdom of Winter, A Curriculum Guide by science educator Joshua Hunter and was endorsed by the
International Honor Society in Education. ==Personal life==