Violinist Jessica Lee and pianist Reiko Uchida teamed up for a crowd-pleasing night Feb. 19 at this season’s second Harker Concert Series performance, which featured the works of composers from a variety of eras.
As the first piece of the evening began, Lee stood still with her instrument at her side while Uchida marched through the solemn opening chords. A slow uplift gave way to a weepy melody, accentuated by Lee’s superb vibrato and interpretive clarity. Their interplay soon drifted into a jaunt of arpeggios, tempo changes and volume swells. Lee’s and Uchida’s mastery of tone and technique served them well through these challenging sections, maintaining astonishing accuracy without losing the emotional impact. This was most apparent just past the midway point of the piece, with Lee’s melodies sweeping across the tapestry created by Uchida’s colorful piano work.
Sergei Prokofiev’s “Five Melodies” – “beautiful little jewels,” as Lee called them – began with a plaintive melody and chords that were written in sunny California but sounded more akin to a rainy day. Lee’s animated, dramatic interpretation lent a kind of imagery to Prokofiev’s melodies. The busy second movement brought to mind a busy city street, perhaps the kind the composer encountered while in 1920s Los Angeles. Speaking of busy, the frantic and anguished third movement called back to a Prokofiev quote Lee cited just before the piece began: “I am as ecstatic about California as it is about me.”
Lee prefaced her performance of Leoš Janáček’s “Sonata for Violin and Piano” with a personal anecdote about her visit to the composer’s home in the Czech countryside. The piece, she said, contained “explosive fragments,” a result of Janáček’s interest in speech patterns, the various inflections of which found their way into this particular piece. Certainly, the piece often played out like a heated conversation between various parties, shifting moods, coming in fits and starts. It was unconventional material, rhythmically challenging and thematically complex, but Lee and Uchida were up to the task. The transition from the anxiety-fraught first movement to the more organized, daydream-like “Balada: con moto” was no trouble at all.
The pleasant, strident melodies of Beethoven’s “Sonata for Violin and Piano in Major” welcomed the audience back from the intermission, Lee and Uchida going back and forth with delightful flurries and strolling melodies before drifting into the thoughtful and reflective adagio. Though Lee’s violin was center stage, Uchida shined in the space provided with her steady rhythms and playful interpretation.
Ever the entertainer, Lee elected to close the evening with Pablo de Sarasate’s “Introduction and Tarantella,” displaying the not only the technical ability of both musicians, but also their flair for theatrics, sending a very appreciative crowd smiling into the drizzly evening. But not before stopping in the atrium for an autographed CD.
Jordan Thompson, grade 11, led the Eagles with 22 points in the regular season finale against first place Mercy San Francisco, but it wasn’t enough as Harker was defeated 52-43. However, the Eagles finished with an impressive 16-8 record and were given the No. 10 seed in the CCS Division 4 playoffs. That gives Harker’s team home court advantage as it hosts Terra Nova on Tuesday at 7 p.m. Come out to support our Eagles as they make a run at a CCS title!
Boys Basketball
Last week the boys varsity basketball team picked up a huge 71-29 win over Crystal Springs Uplands behind a 21-point, five-rebound, five-assist night from Rohan Desikan, grade 12. Later in the week, the Eagles faced off with Menlo to close out the regular season, but the Knights spoiled Senior Night by defeating Harker 55-42. Elijah Edgehill, grade 12, led the way with 13 points. The Eagles finished the season with a 12-12 record and were rewarded with the No. 11 seed in the CCS Division 4 brackets. The team travels to San Lorenzo Valley this Thursday at 7 p.m. to begin its postseason journey.
Boys Soccer
The varsity boys soccer team wrapped up its season last week as it split its two games. The Eagles fell to King’s Academy 3-1 on Senior Day, but finished the season on a winning note, taking down Priory 2-1 with goals from Kedar Gupta, grade 11, and Jared Anderson, grade 9. Harker ended with a respectable 7-9-1 record. Great job this year!
Wrestling
Although the Harker wrestling team was represented by only two wrestlers in the CCS tournament, it had a very strong showing. Anthony Contreras, grade 10, went 1-2 in the tournament, but with two more years of high school wrestling ahead, the sky is the limit for Contreras. Davis Howard, grade 11, represented Harker very well in the 285-pound division. Howard went 3-2, with all of his wins coming by fall, and his final loss coming at the hands of the eventual third place finisher. Congratulations on a great year to Anthony, Davis and the entire Harker wrestling team!
MS Wrestling
Dezi Johnson, grade 6, once again showed that he is one of the best young wrestlers in the nation as he finished fifth at the 2016 Liberty Nationals. The tournament was held this past weekend in St. Joseph, Mo., and showcased some of the best wrestling talent in the country. Again, congrats Dezi!
Harker won first place at the 2016 Cal High School Speech and Debate Tournament, held this past weekend at UC Berkeley. The team won the Sweepstakes trophy, which measures the overall success of a team across all events, including speech, policy debate, Lincoln-Douglas debate, congressional debate and public forum debate. Harker teams prevailed over 243 schools from 26 states and four countries. Harker upper and middle school students participated.
“This award demonstrates the incredible breadth of our speech and debate program,” said Jenny Alme, speech and debate chair. “It took success on all fronts to win this prestigious award. From sixth through 12th grade, we had students excelling in all of the events.”
Over 100 Harker students participated in the 43rd annual invitational tournament.
“This is one of the largest tournaments in the nation,” said Karina Momary, director of middle school speech and debate. “It is also one of the most challenging tournaments our middle school students will attend all year. We had numerous students accomplish top finishes individually, however, the most impressive award is the first place in overall in speech and debate. This award is given to the top school at the entire tournament. This is a huge accomplishment for all of our students as is this is the first time Harker has won this award.”
Massive congratulations to all the participants and to their coaches! Go debate Eagles!
As the regular winter sports season comes to an end, one Harker team prepares for the postseason, while three others fight for the right to play in CCS.
Wrestling
The varsity wrestling team competed in the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League finals this past weekend at Gunn High School. Two Harker wrestlers finished in the top six in their weight class to advance to the CCS tournament. Anthony Contreras, grade 10, placed third, and Davis Howard, grade 11, became only the fourth Harker wrestler in school history to make it to the league finals, where he placed second. Also finishing strong were Daniel Reidenbach, grade 11, who finished eight in his weight class, and Dolan Dworak, grade 10, who finished second in the JV tournament. CCS begins this Friday at Independence High School.
MS Wrestling
Dezi Johnson, grade 6, continues to rack up the trophies as he won the middle school division of the Valentine’s Day Massacre Central California Open in Paso Robles. Congrats, Dezi!
Boys Soccer
The boys soccer team fell to Crystal Springs Uplands 3-1 last week. The Eagles are now 6-6-1 on the season as they head into the final two games of the year. The Eagles host King’s Academy on Wednesday at Davis Field, and travel to Priory on Friday.
Girls Soccer
The girls soccer team ended its season with a 6-0 loss to Menlo last week. Good job this year, ladies!
Boys Basketball
The boys basketball team dropped two big road league games last week, falling to Eastside College Prep 61-59 and Priory 73-41. In the loss to ECP, Elijah Edgehill, grade 12, had another double double as he scored a team high 18 points and grabbed a team high 13 rebounds. Roy Yuan, grade 9, added 17 points in the loss. Edgehill led all Harker scorers again in the loss to Priory with 15 points. The Eagles drop to 11-11 on the season with two games left to play. Harker hosts Crystal Springs Uplands tonight at Blackford at 6:30 p.m. and the Menlo Knights on Friday.
Girls Basketball
The girls varsity basketball team fell to co-first place Priory last week 63-50, and will face the other first place team, Mercy San Francisco, Tuesday night in the city. In the loss to Priory, Jordon Thompson, grade 11, had another big night scoring 31 points. The Eagles go to 16-7 for the season.
Cross Country
Last week, Niki Iyer, grade 11, competed in the California Winter Track Championships at Cerritos College. In the 1500-meter run, Niki placed 28th out of 58 of the best runners in the state. Great job, Niki!
Two dozen Harker student writers were honored in this year’s Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. Presented by the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, the awards have existed since 1923. Prominent past winners include Andy Warhol, Langston Hughes, Judy Blume and Wangechi Mutu.
Twenty-three Harker upper school students and one middle school student were honored this year. Arushee Bhoja, grade 9, received a Gold Key award in the flash fiction category, and a Silver Key and honorable mention in poetry. Sophomore Emily Chen received two Gold Keys in poetry and a Silver Key in short story. In personal essay/memoir, junior Alexis Gauba earned an honorable mention. Senior Kaity Gee won two Gold Keys in flash fiction, as well as one in poetry and one in writing portfolio. She also received a Silver Key and eight honorable mentions in poetry.
Jordan Goheen, grade 11, received an honorable mention for poetry, while fellow junior Joyce Huang hauled in a Gold Key and a Silver Key in the critical essay category and an honorable mention in personal essay/memoir. Junior Angela Kim’s pair of entries in the personal essay/memoir category earned her a Silver Key and an honorable mention.
Junior Sarisha Kurup earned three Gold Keys – two in short story and one in poetry – and three Silver Keys in the same categories. Kurup was also awarded five honorable mentions for poetry. Junior Chen Yu Li’s “The Dance Room” won her an honorable mention in personal essay/memoir, and Erin Liu, grade 9, received a Gold Key in the same category for her work, titled “In Our Hands.”
Rajiv Movva, grade 10, received an honorable mention for his critical essay “On Cancer Research,” and junior Jordan Murtiff won a Gold Key in personal essay/memoir. In poetry, Evani Radiya-Dixit, grade 11, was awarded two honorable mentions for her pieces “Gunshot” and “The Mirror.” Andrew Rule, also a junior, submitted four short stories to the contest, which earned him two Gold Keys, a Silver Key and an honorable mention. “Gravity” a personal essay/memoir earned senior Samali Sahoo a Silver Key, while junior Vedaad Shakib’s “A Constructive Use of Time” was awarded a Silver Key in the same category.
Five of senior Elisabeth Siegel’s poems were winners in the contest, earning her a Gold Key, a Silver Key and three honorable mentions. Her short story, “Clean,” also won a Silver Key. Sophomore Sahana Srinivasan received an honorable mention for “The Stages of Reading a Book” in the personal essay/memoir category. Three of junior Meilan Steimle’s entries in personal essay/memoir received Gold Key awards, while her flash fiction piece, “Postcards,” won her a Silver Key. Steimle also earned honorable mentions in flash fiction, personal essay/memoir and short story.
Maya Valluru, grade 11, was awarded a Silver Key and an honorable mention in poetry, as well as an honorable mention in flash fiction, and Eleanor Xiao, grade 10, received two Silver Keys for her entries in personal essay/memoir. Freshman Alexander Young received an honorable mention in critical essay, and Tiffany Zhu, grade 11, earned two honorable mentions for dramatic script and flash fiction.
At the middle school level, eighth grader Cynthia Chen received an honorable mention for her poem, “Reflections.”
Nate Kelly, grade 10 was named offensive co-MVP and classmate Anthony Contreras, was named defensive co-MVP. Four Harker students were named to the first team: Demonte Aleem, grade 9; Johnathon Keller, grade 12; Jadan McDermott, grade 10; and James Pauli, grade 10. Four more were named to the second team: Jalen Clark, grade 10; Saketh Gurram, grade 11; Will Park, grade 11; and Trenton Thomas, grade 12. Congrats to all for a record season and for these honors!
Last weekend, seniors Vivek Bharadwaj, Elina Sendonaris and Jessica Zhu, and junior Manan Shah competed in the US Invitational Young Physicists Tournament in Lynchburg, Va., where they finished as finalists. Harker won the tournament last year, so was the team to beat this year. The 2016 team was among 11 that participated in the tournament, which was held in a round-robin format in which one team, acting as the reporter, displayed a solution to a physics problem that the opposing team, known as the opponent, then investigated by discussing the strong and weak points of the solution. Naman Jindal, Alice Wu and Tong Wu, all grade 12 and Neelesh Ramachandran, grade 10, assisted the competitors.
The girls basketball team picked up a big league win versus Mercy Burlingame last week as the Eagles defeated the Crusaders 69-32. Jordan Thompson, grade 11, led all scorers with 30 points. On Tuesday night the Eagles defeated Crystal Springs Uplands 57-16. Thompson had another big game with 31 points. She was also featured in an article about her amazing year. Check it out on prep2prep: http://prep2prep.com/feature.aspx?ArticleID=9507
The Eagles finish the regular season with games against the top two teams in the WBAL Skyline division, Priory and Mercy SF.
The boys basketball team dropped two league contests last week to bring its season record to 11-9. In a heartbreaking 58-57 loss to Sacred Heart Prep, Elijah Edgehill, grade 12, scored 21 points and grabbed 14 rebounds. Then in a 71-63 defeat, Edgehill had a 19 point, 13 rebound game, and Evan Lohn, grade 12, had a season best 16 points. The Eagles travel to Eastside Prep tonight and then to Priory on Friday.
The boys soccer team fell to Menlo last Friday 4-1, dropping its season record to 6-5-1. The Eagles host Crystal Springs Uplands Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. on Davis Field.
Girls Soccer
On Tuesday King’s Academy defeated the girls soccer team 6-0. Earlier last week the Eagles lost to Menlo 3-0, Castiilleja 4-0 and Notre Dame SJ 1-0. The Eagles finish their season this Thursday at Menlo. Good luck girls!
Wrestling
The Wrestling team traveled to Homestead early last week and fell to the Mustangs 66-6. Later in the week, the Eagles hosted Lynbrook, but were also defeated 57-36. However, Anthony Contreras, grade 10, won by decision, and Diego Figueroa, grade 11, and Davis Howard, grade 11, each won by fall. This past weekend the Eagles competed in the Wilcox Tournament where Harker finished in 10th place as a team. In their respective weight classes, Kobe Howard, grade 9, finished second, Contreras finished third, and Dolan Dworak, grade 10, finished sixth. The Eagles begin the SCVAL tournament this weekend at Gunn High School.
Adventure on the high seas was in store for audiences of this year’s grade 5 show, “Pirates! The Musical,” directed by Kellie Binney-Smart. A cast of 132 took the stage for a series of sea shanties about their swashbuckling exploits. In addition to the fifth graders, several faculty members joined in on the fun, including Katie Molin, Shelby Guarino, Jared Ramsey, Gerry-louise Robinson, Kate Shanahan and Kristin Giammona. Songs performed during the show included “A Pirate’s Life for Me,” “Stowaway,” “King of the High C’s” and “The Pirate King.”
Grade 5 students also worked behind the scenes, as Danny Dunn’s grade 5 technical theater students acted as the production crew. Costumer Karoli Clever arranged the wardrobe for the sea-faring cast and Whitney Pintello’s scenic designs perfectly matched the theme of the show.
A huge cast of 140 dancers paid tribute to the songs and styles of the 80s and 90s at the 2016 upper school dance show, “Mixed Tape: Songs to Dance To,” held Jan. 29 and 30 at the Blackford Theater. Separated into two acts – one for each decade – the show featured a total of 21 routines, set to such hits as Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” Wham!’s “Wake Me Up,” and Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance With Somebody.”
The show was directed by upper school dance teacher Karl Kuehn, who based the theme of the show on his own childhood, much of which was spent making cassette tapes that contained his favorite songs. Kuehn and fellow teacher Rachelle Haun provided most of the choreography, with choreography also contributed by seniors Sharanya Balaji, Ankita Sharma and Allison Wang, and juniors Emre Ezer, Hazal Gurcan, Sanjana Marce and Surabhi Rao.