Soprano Gabrielle DeMers ’03 has forged for herself a career in operatic and concert singing. Her path has been clear since she graduated from Harker with a solid resume of performances including major roles in “Little Shop of Horrors” in spring 2001 and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” in fall 2002. On May 17, 2019, DeMers, along with D.J. Blickenstaff ’09, was given Harker’s inaugural Life in the Arts award.
“It was hard to tell where Gabby was headed initially,” said Jeff Draper, theater teacher, “because she was so talented in so many areas. For my first fall play at Harker, I cast Gabby as Titania in ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream.’ I knew that she would be fantastic as a fantasy goddess queen, filling the auxiliary gym with her performance, in the round in that huge space, and without a microphone. She has always carried that bearing that says ‘I can do this, I can hold your focus, and I am here to entertain you.’ She still brings that quality to her work today.”
DeMers was equally successful in Harker’s choral music program, performing with Downbeat. Her vocal music Conservatory advisor, Catherine Snider, noted that Gabby possessed “such an opera diva vibe when she was young, with her powerful voice and technique. And then, she’d surprise you and turn on a dime into the gum-chewing naïve New Yorker Audrey in ‘Little Shop of Horrors.’”
She remains the only Harker Conservatory Certificate graduate to major in both vocal music and theater.
DeMers holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music where she sang the female lead, Betty, in the West Coast premiere of Lowell Liebermann and J.D. McClatchy’s “Miss Lonelyhearts” and Nerone in Handel’s “Agrippina.” While at USC, she received the Opera Award and was inducted into the Order of Troy for her outstanding leadership in the music department.
She received her Master of Music in opera performance from the University of Maryland, College Park. As a member of the Maryland Opera Studio, she sang the title role of Sandrina in Mozart’s “La Finta Giardiniera” and Tatyana in Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin.”
DeMers has appeared in many productions since taking flight as a professional singer. She appeared regularly with Lyric Opera Baltimore where she made her role debut as Kate Pinkerton in “Madama Butterfly” under the baton of Steven White and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.
With Opera AACC, DeMers sang Donna Elvira in “Don Giovanni” and Erste Dame in “Die Zauberflöte.” For her Mimi in “La Boheme” with HUBOpera, DC Metro Arts wrote that she was “sweetly demure as ingénue seamstress Mimi … ‘Donde Lieta’ … was heart-breaking and left most of the audience in tears.”
DeMers is a regular leading lady with The Young Victorian Theatre Company where she was Josephine in “H.M.S. Pinafore” (2017, 2013), Phyllis in “Iolanthe,” and Gianetta in “The Gondoliers,” where The Baltimore Sun singled her out as “a dynamo as Gianetta, with her bright, hearty soprano.”
She received the Sorcerer’s Cup award from Young Vic for her dedication to and leadership in the company and will be featured in their upcoming production of “From London To Baltimore: A Salute to Gilbert & Sullivan.”
DeMers is featured on EMI’s album “Universidad Navidena” as the soprano soloist in an orchestral arrangement of “Noche Sagrada.” Her concert work includes the soprano soloist in Schubert’s “Mass in G,” soprano 2 soloist in Mozart’s “Mass in c minor,” soprano soloist in Mozart’s “Vesperae solennes de confessore,” and Bachianas “Brasileiras No. 5” of Villa Lobos.
Recently, DeMers has performed twice at Harker: first, in February 2018, at the opening of the Rothschild Performing Arts Center and a year later at the Harker 125th Anniversary Gala.
DeMers can be heard in concerts and operas throughout the Baltimore/DC Metro area, including concerts where she represents Maryland Opera.
Life in the Arts awardees are those alumni who have the character, talent, drive and determination to pursue their passion as their livelihood. Our inductees come from the stage, screen, classroom, backstage and rehearsal halls. They are passionate about their art and create at the highest level within their domain.
Actor D.J. Blickenstaff ’09 loved both baseball and theater when he entered high school at Harker, but their schedules conflicted. The acting bug had bitten him when he was a member of the Harmonics vocal group in middle school, so he decided to say goodbye to baseball and audition for the spring musical. He hasn’t looked back. On May 17, 2019, Blickenstaff, along with Gabrielle DeMers ’03, was given Harker’s inaugural Life in the Arts award.
“D.J. made his love of performing very clear to everyone very early on,” said Laura Lang-Ree, performing arts chair, “and it was easy to see why. As soon as I saw him shine on stage in Harmonics, I understood why. He loved performing.
“D.J. entered high school as a complete force of nature, unlike one we had ever encountered. With impeccable manners, a fantastic attitude and willingness to go the extra mile, D.J. easily became somebody all of us wanted to work with – which makes sense because we always tell our certificate students, ‘If you want to make it in this business, you not only have to be talented, but the nicest person in the room.’ That’s D.J.”
Blickenstaff shone in Harker productions “Urinetown: The Musical” (Lockstock) in 2007, “Annie Get Your Gun” (Frank Butler) in 2008 and “The Music Man” (Harold Hill) in 2009.
“My passion for acting began at Harker, and has just grown from there,” said Blickenstaff, who was part of the Conservatory’s inaugural trip to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland. “Harker’s teachers gave me a strong core on which to build.”
Blickenstaff went on to earn a B.F.A. from the University of Southern California, where – while performing as Joey in “The Most Happy Fella” – he was approached by a management agency interested in representing him. “They were scoping for talent, and I got lucky,” he said. “I was able to build a really solid team of six different agents working for me in different areas of the industry.”
Blickenstaff’s first jobs included acting in NBC’s “Diversity Scene Showcase,” a one-night event spotlighting up-and-coming talent, and delivering a one-liner on “Sean Saves the World.” He currently has a recurring role on Netflix’s “Dear White People” and recently shot the pilot of a show called “#Fashionvictim,” which – if picked up – would be his first regular role in a series.
He previously appeared in multiple episodes of “Catching a Break” and “Colony” and is the author of a web series about the Hollywood business industry. When he’s not auditioning, Blickenstaff keeps busy with live theater in Los Angeles and as the voiceover announcer for USC’s public events.
“I enjoy pursuing entertainment for social change – letting art be something that drives people to make changes in their lives or the world,” Blickenstaff said. “It’s a beautiful thing to be on a set with so many people who believe in the story we’re telling.”
Life in the Arts awardees are those alumni who have the character, talent, drive and determination to pursue their passion as their livelihood. Our inductees come from the stage, screen, classroom, backstage and rehearsal halls. They are passionate about their art and create at the highest level within their domain.
Agata Sorotokin ’15 has been named a 2019 Paul & Daisy Soros Fellow for her drive, creativity, intellectual spirit and commitment to the values at the heart of the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights.
The Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans support outstanding immigrants and children of immigrants who are pursuing a graduate education in the United States. The organization selects 30 individuals a year, and each receives up to $90,000 toward his or her graduate education. This year’s fellows, 20 of whom are women, were selected from a pool of 1,767 applicants from across the country. Sorotokin will use her fellowship to pursue a master’s degree in music at SUNY Stony Brook. Read her bio, here.
Past fellows include former U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy; California Surgeon General Nadine Burke Harris; Stanford artificial intelligence leader Fei-Fei Li; Lieutenant Governor of Washington Cyrus Habib; composer Paola Prestini; computational biologist Pardis Sabeti; award-winning writer Kao Kalia Yang; and more than 600 other New American leaders. The list also includes several other Harker alumni: Suchita Nety ’13 and Angela Ma ’14 in 2018,Ashvin Swaminathan ’13 in 2017 and Daniel Kim ’09 in 2014.
Last week, Harker graduates from the classes of 1988-2015 attended “Harker in Los Angeles,” the second stop in this year’s 125th anniversary tour. The event was held at the Everson Royce Bar in downtown Los Angeles. Albeit an intimate gathering, the folks who attended had plenty to catch up on and did so over great food and cocktails!
In addition, The Keller Tour 2019 continued its tradition of visiting Harker alumni now in college, this time at UCLA! Butch Keller, upper school division head, and his wife, Jane Keller, math teacher, along with Kristina Alaniz, alumni director, caught up with nine current UCLA students. They enjoyed seeing the Harker grads thriving in their shared second alma mater!
Mishi Vachev ’15 is featured in a nice article from Eckerd College, as she was one of 25 students worldwide chosen as a 2018 American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB) Conviron Scholar. Benefits include a one-year membership to the ASPB, a hands-on virtual learning program, virtual mentoring with a plant science professional, and the opportunity to present a poster at the next ASPB meeting and to submit an article to the ASPB blog for publication.
“She’s been doing excellent work here at Eckerd in our greenhouse,” said Jacob Browne, director of admission. Vachev credits Harker with helping her find her way.
The article notes, “A biotechnology class in high school combined her passions in a real way. When choosing a college, she already knew what she was looking for.” And she’s not done yet.
Vachev will receive a bachelor’s degree this spring and said, “I hope to pursue a Ph.D. in plant breeding and to specifically work on breeding crops for third world countries or populations in need of improved agriculture.”
Usua Amanam MS ’05, an energy resources engineering Ph.D. candidate at Stanford, was named a 2019 Siebel Scholar in October 2018. Amanam attended Harker from pre-kindergarten thorough grade 8. The Siebel Scholars program annually recognizes nearly 100 exceptional students from the world’s leading graduate schools of business, computer science, energy science and bioengineering. Read more about Amanam’s incredible journey at Stanford Earth.
Amy Jin ’18, now attending Harvard, stopped by Harker to talk about her journey and life after high school, as well as answer questions about her path and the project that has brought her several prizes. In 2018, while still a senior, Jin was named one of five students nationwide to receive the Cutler-Bell Prize in High School Computing. She also was named a 2018 Davidson Fellow Laureate in the technology category for her project, which gives surgeons with a way to assess their technique by analyzing their movements and providing feedback on a variety of criteria, such as economy of motion and bimanual dexterity. Read more here: https://staging.news.harker.org/amy-jin-18-awarded-prestigious-davidson-fellowship-for-project-on-tracking-surgical-tools/
And here are two further articles of interest about Jin:
More than 75 alumni and their guests joined school representatives at the kickoff of this year’s alumni regional tour in New York City. Ethan (Atin) Agarwal ’03, Aaptiv founder and CEO, graciously hosted the event at Aaptiv’s headquarters located on the 49th floor of the magnificent One World Trade Center building. Alumni of the classes of 1979 to 2014 attended. With breathtaking views of the city, great company, music and food, the group had a stellar time. The celebration was one for the books!
Tiffany Duong ’02 paid a visit to the upper school on March 8 to give a talk about her career path, current work and future goals. Knowing early in life that she wanted to do conservation work, Duong became a renewable energy lawyer after college, working on projects such as the Tehachapi Pass Wind Farm and Ivanpah Solar Power Tower. She then made a major career change that took her to the Amazon, Costa Rica and eventually the Florida Keys, where worked with the Coral Restoration Foundation to grow and replant corals along the Florida Reef Tract. With her CRF colleague Sara Nilsson, she co-founded the media production company Ocean Rebels, which seeks to inspire environmental action by creating “media that makes you think and act differently,” Duong said.
Nilsson also recounted her winding path from studying neuroscience (despite her childhood dream of being a National Geographic photographer) to learning documentary filmmaking at the University of the West of England. As a documentarian, she created a widely circulated film about how deaths of Scottish citizens abroad are rarely investigated and their families left without support.
Duong offered her own life as an example of the many divergences one’s career can take, and encouraged the students in attendance to “redefine success to be what makes you happy.”
The Sterling award is based on overall academic performance and is given to 25 students from the graduating class in the School of Humanities and Sciences. One of the university’s highest academic honors, it has been awarded to two other Harker alumni. In 2016, Anand Natarajan ’09 earned the award, and in 2011, Jocelyn Ko ’07 was an awardee.
One of the features of the award is the in-person recognition of a secondary school teacher who most influenced the recipient in their academic careers. Mani selected math teacher Victor Adler as her most influential teacher. Ko chose to honor Evan Barth and Natarajan chose Eric Nelson.
The Alice T. Schafer prize was established in 1990 by the executive committee of the Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM). It is named for AWM former president and one of its founding members, Alice T. Schafer, who contributed a great deal to women in mathematics throughout her career.
“I am extremely lucky to have been honored by Stanford and the AWM,” said Mani. “I am incredibly grateful to all of the Harker teachers who inspired me to explore mathematics and research in college, and to an array of amazing Stanford faculty who mentored and encouraged me every step along my undergraduate journey.”