Reprinted from the Winged Post, the Harker upper school student news website
Posted: March 23, 2010 at 4:48 pm – Online Exclusive
by: Shilpa Nataraj – The Winged Post
Illustrating her musical journey and providing techniques for audition preparation, Nancy Kim, professional cellist and middle school 1996 alumna, conducted a music workshop March 19 in the orchestra room.
“I thought Nancy’s workshop was great. She provided the performing students with great musical advice on their excerpts and gave the other students really wonderful advice about a career in music,” Orchestra and Jazz Band conductor Christopher Florio said.
Fourteen years ago, when Kim was in school, an orchestral program didn’t even exist. Kim agreed to visit the upper school partly out of curiosity, after Florio assured that she would see “how much the community here has grown and how the music programs have become something really wonderful.”
Kim is a tenured member of the Monterey Symphony and a member of several other acclaimed Northern Californian orchestras. She also teaches her discipline, the cello, to Bay Area students.
“I just love seeing when someone who’s working on a piece is very close to having a certain interpretation of it, and I really like facilitating its direction,” Kim said. “I enjoy seeing young performers improve and grow.”
Melody Huang, Gr. 10, Sonya Huang, Gr. 12 and Audrey Kwong ’07 each prepared one or two orchestral excerpts to render “mock auditions” for Kim to critique. Her comments included the importance of “relishing even the little notes,” the color of sound, clarity and maintaining a steady pulse throughout the piece.
“[Kim] mostly emphasized my [musical expression] and pointed out the spots I could change to better fit it or make it more understandable,” Melody Huang said. “I think [her advice] really gave me a clearer sense of the structure of the excerpt.”
After the mock auditions, Kim discussed her journey and then shared a portion of a documentary on the Philadelphia Orchestra. The film, according to Kim, portrays “a wonderful reflection of what orchestra musicians go through and what they think and feel about the music that they play.”
Initially, Kim aspired to graduate from Oberlin College in Ohio as purely an English major. After also enrolling in music classes in her second year, though, an inspirational teacher aided her in becoming more involved in the intricacies of the cello. For her master’s in orchestral performance, Kim attended the Manhattan School of Music in New York, an inspirational place completely enveloped in the arts, she recalled.
“I’m a case study [for the people whom] the music bug doesn’t bite till later on,” she said.
In retrospect, Kim believes that carving one’s future early proves beneficial. She recommends that aspiring musicians build a score library and gain familiarity with as many excerpts as possible for auditions. She adds that it is essential to hear feedback from friends, peers and instructors. It is also important to self-critique by watching taped practices or by other means.
Kim started her mastery of the cello at age 10 (after a lack of success with the violin and Suzuki-method piano) and felt a connection with this four-stringed instrument. However, she was compelled to catch up to the level of her peers in her studio class, so she practiced as much as three to four hours a day.
For aspiring music majors such as Maddy Rao, Gr. 10, Kim’s journey is inspiring. She said, “For a lot of us, parents put pressure, saying, ‘There’s too much competition, so you’re never going to be good.’ But, it’s wonderful to see [instructors like Kim] who give you hope that if you really, really want to pursue music, you definitely can.”
Harker debaters made the final round of the National Debate Coaches Association Championships the weekend of April 17-18 in Washington, D.C. Justine Liu, Gr. 11 and Akshay Jagadeesh, Gr. 10, lost in the final round in Public Forum Debate in a 2-1 decision. Ziad Jawadi, Gr. 11 and Aakash Jagadeesh, Gr. 10, were semifinalists.
The prior weekend, Harker debaters flew to New York to compete in the Westchester Classic tournament, where freshmen Anuj Sharma and Aneesh Chona won the final round of Varsity Public Forum Debate to earn the tournament title. Senior Kelsey Hilbrich and sophomore Frederic Enea lost in the quarterfinal round, and Hilbrich was named top speaker of the tournament.
The National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC), a nonprofit organization that honors the scholastic achievements of high school students, has begun to announce the winners in the 55th annual National Merit Scholarship Program. Congratulations to Sarah Teplitsky, Gr. 12, who was awarded a scholarship by Lockheed Martin.
In September, Harker News Online posted the names of the 50 Harker students who were semifinalists in this competition, based on the scores they earned on their 2008 PSATs. Corporate-sponsored scholarship winners are the first group to be selected from the nation’s semifinalists who have advanced to the finals. National Merit-sponsored and college-sponsored scholarships will be announced in May and July.
Approximately 1,000 high school seniors have won corporate-sponsored National Merit scholarships financed by about 200 companies, foundations and other business organizations, according to the NMSC website.
Patrick Campbell, Gr. 12, was named the 2010 River of Words Environmental Poetry and Art Contest Bioregion Prize Winner for a poem he wrote about watersheds titled “Old Country.” River of Words is a California-based, nonprofit organization that seeks to encourage connections between creative young people and their natural environment.
According to their website, award-winning artwork and poetry “is exhibited around the globe and is seen by millions of people each year, both in person, and reprinted in magazines, books, annual reports and other media.” Campbell wrote his poem while a student in Jennifer Siraganian’s Creative Writing class last fall. Campbell accepted his award at a ceremony on April 17 at the San Francisco Public Library.
“The award ceremony was lovely,” reported Siraganian, who added that Pamela Michael, River of Words executive director and co-founder, described Campbell’s poem as the strongest from the thousands of entries received from Bay Area students. In addition to enjoying publication in the River of Words annual anthology, Campbell has been invited to the national awards ceremony at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., in June.
The upper school production of “Les Miserables” was a grand spectacle worthy of the musical’s impressive pedigree. Directed by performing arts chair Laura Lang-Ree, the beloved through-sung retelling of the classic Victor Hugo novel was wonderfully brought to life by the massive cast of upper school students, many of them playing multiple roles. During a run of four shows, the students played this most ambitious of musicals to a packed house each time, with more than 300 in attendance at every performance.
A sprawling, epic tale of redemption and romance spanning two decades in 19th century France, “Les Miserables” chronicles the life of ex-convict Jean Valjean (Nirjhar Mundkur, Gr. 11) as he transforms himself from a petty thief into an honest man while revolution begins to foment among the Paris youth.
The elaborate, multi-tiered set, which changed the orientation of the theater to have the stage in the middle of the room and the audience on three sides, was designed and built by middle school performing arts teacher Paul Vallerga, and creatively implemented a rotating floor to show scenes from multiple perspectives. The dramatic lighting by Natti Pierce-Thomson enhanced every scene with the appropriate level of atmosphere.
Upper school music teacher Catherine Snider, utilizing a supplemental computerized orchestration for the first time in the Conservatory, conducted a five-piece band as they provided seamless musical accompaniment to the onstage performances.
Students also provided a tremendous amount of offstage assistance, operating light and sound boards, managing the stage, assisting with wardrobe and performing many other duties to keep the show running on all cylinders.
The upper school orchestra has been named the top scoring orchestra of the Los Angeles Festival of Gold. The orchestra is in southern California today – April 19 — and has the honor of performing in Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall in the Orange County Performing Arts Center tonight for the entire group of festival participants and families. The judges and festival director requested the orchestra play the Elgar Cello Concerto, featuring Julia Shim, Gr. 12, for the encore performance. “The kids are thrilled, as this is greatest honor our young orchestra has ever achieved,” said Chris Florio, orchestra director.
Nine Harker students traveled to Washington, D.C., in early April for the 2010 National Japan Bowl competition. All three Harker teams made the final round, ultimately placing first in Level II, second in Level III and second in Level IV.
Japan Bowl is an academic competition that tests the achievements of high school students studying Japanese in the United States. The competition tests not only the students’ language skills but also their knowledge of proverbs and onomatopoeic (words that represent sounds, like “buzz” and “hiss”) expressions as well as various cultural elements.
Each year, the competition tests different non-language questions, and this year’s non-language questions included extensive topics such as the history of the showa and heisei periods, haiku, folk tales, demography, transportation, communications infrastructure and mass media, economy, business, Japanese artifacts, anime and manga and more.
Teams were:
Level II: Shilpa Nataraj, team captain, Gr. 10; Crystal Chen, Gr. 10; and Meera Madhavan, Gr. 9.
Level III; Tiffany Jang, team captain, Gr. 10; Victoria Liang Gr.11; and Lorraine Wong, Gr. 9.
Level IV: Kelly Chen, team captain, Gr. 12; Katie Liang, Gr. 11, and Jerry Sun, Gr. 11.
Olivia Zhu, Gr. 11, has been named one of the top 10 national finalists in the First Freedom Student Competition and will receive an honorable mention. More than 2,200 high school students competed nationwide.
The First Freedom Student Competition offers monetary awards for student efforts on history, current events and the right to freedom of religion. The competition is hosted by the First Freedom Center, an organization that provides programs to increase understanding and respect for religious freedom.
For the competition, students write an essay on religious freedom which is judged by historians, historical site and museum professionals, retired educators and business executives. The semifinalists’ essays are judged by constitutional law and religious freedom scholars to determine the top 10 essays and final judging is by experts in the fields of higher education and law.
The competition is held annually and is open to students in the United States, U.S. territories and to American schools and American home-schooled students worldwide.
Emily Wang, Gr. 9, received a gold medal for her outstanding writing through The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, an 87-year-old national program that recognizes outstanding creative teenagers and offers scholarship opportunities for graduating high school seniors.
She will be honored June 9, 2010, at a gala celebration at Carnegie Hall in New York City and may have her writing exhibited in Manhattan at the World Financial Center Courtyard Gallery June 9-25.
Wang joins some well-known figures in winning this award, including Joyce Carol Oates, Robert Redford, Andy Warhol, Truman Capote, John Lithgow and Bernard Malamud. Almost 900 students from 298 schools across California submitted 2,051 pieces of writing for judging including essays, poems, articles, stories and dramatic scripts. Of California’s 160 student winners, 22 were awarded Gold Keys, the highest award, and of those, six were awarded national Gold Medals. Wang is one of the six gold medalists.
The California Writing Awards are sponsored and organized by the California Writing Project (CWP), a network of 17 university-based projects across California, and California Writes, CWP’s outreach arm to families and communities.
Since the program was founded in 1923, more than 13 million talented junior high and high school youth (grades 7-12) have participated in The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, and 9 million have been recognized and shared in $25 million in cash awards and college scholarships. In addition to awarding annual scholarships to top portfolio award recipients, the Alliance collaborates with colleges across the country that make an additional $3.9 million in financial aid available to national award recipients.
Japanese students had a chance to work with the community and promote Harker’s Japanese program late February, when 14 students’ calligraphy works were displayed in the New Year calligraphy exhibition hosted by Komochi Home in San Francisco’s Japan Town.
In addition to learning grammar and language in class, Japanese students also receive a taste of Japanese culture through writing haikus, listening to pop songs, and celebrating Japanese holidays such as setsubun, said Japanese teacher Masako Onakado. With brush and ink students practiced Japanese calligraphy, both formal block style as well as cursive styles. “I was impressed that the students were not afraid of trying new styles that look completely different from what they are used to seeing,” Onakado said.
Students’ works were displayed in the annual calligraphy exhibition along with works from other students in Kinmon Gakuen and San Mateo Nippon Gakuen, local Bay Area Japanese schools.