Ben Tien, grade 12, is working towards becoming the next YouTube/Internet sensation with some great music videos he and family members have been posting. His videos have over 1 million views and he has 5,400+ subscribers. Tien is a member of the Upper School Jazz Band, a member of the 2010 homecoming court and, obviously, loves the limelight. Check out one of his latest efforts, a sweet rendition of Colbie Caillat’s “I Do.” In this outing, Tien draws in brother Josh, grade 10; sister Sarah, grade 6; and their mom, Joyce, and adds piquant comments in pop ups. Just plain fun!
Renowned cellist/trombonist/composer Dana Leong came to Harker in early March to hold a workshop with upper school music students. Leong is known for hi hip-hop-jazz-electronics fusion and has received much critical acclaim and draws enthusiastic audiences worldwide.
Leong was accompanied by an MC named iLLspokiNN (sic), a member of Leon’s group Milk and Jade. “The master class involved Dana on trombone, cello and vocals (beat boxing) and his MC,” said Dave Hart, middle school music teacher, who arranged for the visit.
About 30 students participated in the master class, held in Nichols Hall. The pair started with one of Leong’s compositions. “It was impressive because the two of them made it sound like a large ensemble,” Hart said. “Dana played his trombone into a microphone that went through several sound modification devices to create different effects. He also used an electronic cello to produce another array of sound effects while iLLspokiNN rapped over the thematic melodies. They were both accompanied by drum beats that Dana created on his computer.
“What makes Dana unique as a musician is that he performs on both the cello and trombone in a wide selection of musical styles,” Hart continued. “Milk and Jade represents Dana playing a more main stream hip hop sound. He also is trained as a classical and jazz musician with a double major from Manhattan School of Music in classical cello and jazz trombone. We were very lucky to have Dana share his musicianship with the Harker students. I actually knew him throughout high school and we used to play together all the time. He has become such a great musician. He also discussed the music business with the students and shared how he manages to be a full-time musician.”
Upper school vocalists and the ensemble Camerata represented Harker extremely well at the California Music Educators Association (CMEA) Solo and Ensemble Festival on March 12 at San Jose State University.
Students are required to prepare a classical piece to present to a judge, who listens to them and offers critique and advice, much like a one-on-one master class. The judge fills out a comprehensive score sheet with comments which the students keep, and assigns soloists and groups a rank: superior, excellent, good, fair or needs improvement. At the judge’s discretion, a command performance ranking may be added on to a superior, indicating truly outstanding work.
Harker’s musicians were fortunate in their judge this year, a retired voice teacher from the Sacramento area, whose thoughtful insights and gentle humor gave them tremendous confidence and useful tips. For Harker’s Conservatory students, the CMEA festivals are really about these encounters with experts, rather than the scores they receive, and several singers noted how useful the judge’s comments were.
Command performance superiors were awarded to Michelle Holt and Vrinda Goel, grade 12; Katie Marcus Reker, grade 11; and Nina Sabharwal, grade 10. Ashima Agrawal, grade 11, received a superior. Others participating in the festival were seniors Mallika Dhaliwal and Shireen Moshkelani, and juniors Govi Dasu, Sebastian Herscher, Alex Najibi, Bridget Nixon and Lucy Xu. Members of Camerata are Timothy Chou, Mallika Dhaliwal, Ram Seeni, grade 12; Govi Dasu, Sebastian Herscher, grade 11; Cristina Jerney, Nina Sabharwal, Indu Seeni, Pooja Shah, Wendy Shwe, Alice Tsui and Lydia Werthen, grade 10.
Students Wendy Shwe, grade 10 and Diane Villadsen, grade 12, and faculty members Susan Nace and Catherine Snider provided piano accompaniment for the singers.
Sarina Vij, grade 10, took the first place title at the Miss India Star Scholarship Pageant 2011. The event was held on Jan. 28 at the Airport Garden Hotel in San Jose, and was organized by India Waves TV Network and the Swagat Foundation.
The competition was open to any 14-24-year-old student with Indian heritage, and consisted of four rounds – modeling in Eastern and Western outfits, a talent performance, and an IQ round with a question and answer session.
For taking first place in the pageant, Vij was awarded a scholarship of $5,000 to be used toward her college education, as well as an internship with the India Waves TV Network.
The pageant will be broadcast on the India Waves TV Network in all 50 states.
The creativity and hard work of Harker students translated into significant success in this year’s Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. Student artist Vladimir Sepetov, grade 12, won a Gold Key, two Silver Keys and two honorable mentions at the regional level and was awarded a Silver Medal at the national level in the mixed media category. Jessica Lin, grade 11, won a silver medal in the Novel Writing category. Junior Jessica Shen received two honorable mentions in the regional competition. As national winners, both Lin and Sepetov were invited to attend a special ceremony at Carnegie Hall in New York City to receive their awards.
In the writing portion, Cindy Tay, grade 11, was recently named a regional Gold Key medalist in the personal essay category. Three other student writers – Emily Wang, Justin Gerard and Shelby Rorabaugh, all grade 10 – received Merit awards.
Held every year by the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards contest recognizes high school students in the United States, Canada and in overseas American schools with interests in the visual and literary arts. This year’s contest had 185,000 entries.
On Feb. 27, Harker’s Quiz Kids team, coached by Bradley Stoll, upper school math teacher, defeated Daly City’s Westmoor High School in their latest contest in front of their largest audience yet. Olivia Zhu and Richard Chiou, both grade 12, and Vikram Sundar, grade 9, scored a total of 1,340 points in two games, and may enter the final round as the fourth or fifth seed. Their next game takes place Sat., March 26.
The girls swim team opened their season with a 110-60 victory over Notre Dame in early March. Harker won all 11 events, qualifying for CCS in eight of them. Senior Jessica Khojasteh, junior Katie Siegel and freshman Manon Audebert each won two individual events, and Kimberly Ma, grade 9 and Amie Chien, grade 10, each won one event. All three relays won and qualified for CCS, with the 400 free relay of Ma, Audebert, Siegel and Khojasteh setting a school record with a time of 3:45.67.
The boys tennis team defeated Pinewood and King’s Academy last week to improve to 4-0 overall. Varsity hosts Crystal Springs tomorrow and travels to rival Sacred Heart Prep on Thursday.
The boys golf team tallied three victories last week, two against King’s Academy and one against Pinewood. Against Pinewood, Maverick McNealy, grade 10, earned his second straight medalist honors by shooting an even par 33. Classmate Kyle Roter continues his strong putting performance, finishing with a 38. Also contributing to the match were freshman Vik Bhagat’s 44, junior Nathan Sowards’ 46 and senior Ram Seeni’s 47.
Softball went 1-1 last week, defeating Andrew Hill 13-3 and losing at Monte Vista Christian 7-1. Against Hill, Sonia Gupta, grade 10, went 3 for 5 and Alison Rugar, grade 10, pitched 13 strikeouts. Rugar has 29 strikeouts in the season so far. The girls have home games Thurs. and Fri., March 17-18.
Boys volleyball had three matches last week, losing to Mountain View and Westmont, but came from two games down to defeat Monta Vista 3-2 Friday. Senior Zach Mank dominated at the net in games four and five while classmate Jacob Chappell led the team in kills.
Baseball lost to Fremont and Liberty last week. Against Fremont, Greg Cox, grade 12, went 2 for 3 at the plate. At the JV level, David Dominguez, grade 11, pitched all nine innings and drove in the winning run against Gilroy last week to earn the 3-2 victory.
Girls lacrosse lost to Menlo-Atherton and Leland last week. Senior Monisha Appalaraju scored against Leland.
Track and field opens their league season March 16 … wish them well!
The upper school dance production, a yearly celebration of dance with choreography by upper school dance teachers and students, was presented in late January. This year’s production, “Be-A-Muse(d),” was designed by artistic director Laura Rae as an investigation of inspiration and creative processes in the natural world.
“Be-A-Muse(d)”heavily showcased technology to tell its story, with twin projector screens flanking the Blackford stage, reflecting a series of breathtaking panoramas and metropolitan vignettes.
This year’s production drew its music from a panoply of popular, classical, cultural and expressive sources, making room for contemporary bands like Muse and Temper Trap alongside a Hans Zimmer soundtrack, Charles Lingus’ jazz and Niña Pastori’s flamenco.
Student dancers wore shimmering, futuristic outfits that reflected the stage lights, and one memorable moment featured a musical number composed entirely from the startup sounds of a Windows computer.
The production reached its apex in the rendition of the heartbreaking song “This Bitter Earth.” There, dancers in dusty, brown, wrinkled costumes – like decaying leaves in autumn – danced a dipping, worn-down ode, an illustration of the death required for seasonal rebirth.
“Be-A-(Muse)d”was choreographed by teachers Laura Rae, Karl Kuehn, Amalia Vasconi and Adrian Bermudez, along with students Carmen Das-Grande, Katie Forsberg, Nidhi Gandhi, Amiritha Minisandram, Daisy Mohrman, Naomi So, Kenny Wong, Erica Woolsey, all grade 12; Sarika Asthana, Sonya Chalaka, Sarah Howells, Margaret Krackeler, all grade 11; and Tiphaine Delepine, Michaela Kastelman, Molly Wolfe, all grade 10.
Upper school vocal group Bel Canto was joined by several friends for the annual WinterSong concert on Jan. 21 in the Nichols Hall auditorium. Directed by Catherine Snider, Bel Canto kicked off with “Everybody Rejoice,” from the musical “The Wiz,” followed by a version of Mozart’s “Ave Verum” and “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In” from the musical “Hair.”
The next phase of the concert featured a number of impressive solo performances by Harker Conservatory certificate candidates, including guitarist Nidhi Gandhi, grade 12, playing “Rondo, Op. 48” by Fernando Sor; Allika Walvekar, grade 12, singing the Weill/Gershwin piece “My Ship”; Catherine Stiles, grade 12, performing a Scarlatti piece on the harp; and junior Charles Levine performing an original piano piece, titled “Winter.”
For the final portion, Bel Canto once again gathered onstage, singing “Ose Shalom,” a traditional Hebrew text set to music by John Leavitt, and the traditional spiritual “Shine on Me.”
The Harker middle and upper school forensics team, 70 strong, traveled to a Stanford University tournament in mid-February and brought home awards in nearly every event entered. In dramatic interpretation, James Seifert, grade 12, collected third place honors.
In varsity Lincoln-Douglas debate, Roshni Bhatnagar, grade 12, advanced to double-octafinals (top 32), and Chat Malladi, grade 11, earned the fourth place speaker award. Vikrum Sundar, grade 9, also posted a semifinal finish in junior varsity Lincoln-Douglas. In the world of public forum debate, the team of Kiran Arimilli and Neel Bhoopalam, both grade 10, and the team of Daryl Neubeiser and Ishan Taneja, both grade 11, reached double-octafinals (top 32) before being eliminated.
The following weekend, February 19-21, Harker had a stellar performance at the University of California, Berkeley tournament, finishing ninth out of some 210 schools from around the nation. A record 132 middle and upper school students traveled to Berkeley for the largest annual high school invitational tournament in the U.S.
Seifert again took a starring role in Harker’s performance, winning the championship in dramatic interpretation. Seifert was also the only student in the entire tournament who competed in three individual events and successfully advanced to elimination rounds in all three events, reaching octafinals (top 56) in humorous interpretation and semifinals (top 14) in original oratory.
“James’ biggest edge is all of his acting experience here at Harker,” said Jonathan Peele, director of individual events and congressional debate. “He also likes to take risks in the literature he chooses to perform – this year he’s doing ‘I am My Own Wife’ by Doug Wright – which really makes his performance stand out in competition.”
In public forum debate, two of Harker’s teams were invited to participate in a select round robin event hosted at the College Prep School in Oakland prior to the U.C. Berkeley Tournament. There, the team of Rohan Bopardikar and Akshay Jagadeesh, both grade 11, reached semifinals (top 4) while the team of Aneesh Chona and Anuj Sharma, both grade 10, were named co-champions of the tournament. In general competition at Berkeley, the team of Aakash Jagadeesh, grade 11 and Justine Liu, grade 12, reached octafinals (top 16), earning a Tournament of Champions bid. Bopardikar and Akshay Jagadeesh advanced yet again, this time falling in triple-octafinals (top 64).
In varsity Lincoln-Douglas debate, Bhatnagar reached quarterfinals (top 8) out of 380 students in the competition. For doing so, Bhatnagar received her second bid to, and is now fully qualified for, the Tournament of Champions this May. Malladi also advanced to elimination rounds in varsity Lincoln-Douglas, reaching triple-octafinals (top 64). In the junior varsity division, Raymond Xu, grade 9, concluded preliminary rounds as the undefeated top seed, proceeding on to octafinals (top 16) before being eliminated. Sachin Vadodaria, grade 9, joined Xu in JV Lincoln-Douglas elimination rounds, reaching double-octafinals (top 32) and earning the fourth-place speaker award.
In congressional debate, Murali Joshi, grade 11, Michael Tsai, grade 12 and Warren Zhang, grade 10, advanced to the semifinals (top 70), and all earned bids to the Tournament of Champions. Kathir Sundarraj, grade 10, climbed still further, reaching congressional debate finals (top 20). Jacob Hoffman, grade 10, received the gavel for best presiding officer in his preliminary chamber.
This weekend Harker takes a break from competition to play host to our friends from around the region at the Howard and Diana Nichols Invitational. Go Eagle Forensics!