This article originally appeared in the summer 2014 Harker Quarterly.
Spring break was especially memorable for The Harker School Orchestra, which traveled to Chicago to perform at the Chicago International Music Festival – and came home with a Gold Award. Earlier this year, the orchestra was chosen to premiere a new piece by composer Jeremy Van Buskirk. The piece, titled “… such as I am you will be,” was one of three performed by the orchestra at the festival, along with Arturo Marquez’s “Danzon No. 2” and the fourth movement of “Symphony No. 5” by Dmitri Shostakovich.
The orchestra’s performance earned high praise from Deborah Gibbs, president and CEO of World Projects, the production company behind the festival, who declared The Harker School Orchestra was the best high school orchestra she had ever heard. Chris Florio, upper school music teacher and director of the orchestra, was similarly enthused. “We have been preparing all year long for this event and I could not be more proud of how our students performed,” he said.
This article originally appeared in the summer 2014 Harker Quarterly.
The middle school performing arts department turned to the works of Walt Disney for this year’s spring musical, bringing the classic animated film “Aladdin” to the stage at the Blackford Theater. The musical followed the plot of the beloved 1992 film, in which the street urchin for which the movie is named (played by Sahil Kapur, grade 8) comes into the possession of a magic lamp containing a Genie (Sameep Mangat, grade 8) who will grant him three wishes. This prompts a series of exciting and hilarious adventures, with Aladdin trying to undo the machinations of the evil vizier Jafar (Akhil Arun, grade 8) while love blooms between Aladdin and the sultan’s daughter, Princess Jasmine (Vanessa Tyagi, grade 8).
As in the film, the stage production contained many elaborate musical numbers, which were choreographed by Natalie Quilici. Meanwhile, vocal director Mary Ellen Agnew-Place and music director Lane Sanders presided over the fantastic music from the band and the cast. The film’s Arabian setting was rendered wonderfully by set designer Paul Vallerga, with lighting designed by Natti Pierce-Thomson. As always, student crew members were a crucial part of the operation, helping to ensure that the production ran smoothly at all times.
This article originally appeared in the summer 2014 Harker Quarterly.
Upper school vocal groups came together for In Concert on May 2. Jennifer Sandusky directed Bel Canto in a diverse set including “Tres Cantos Nativos Dos Indios Krao,” a song that combines melodies sung by South American natives.
The girls choir Cantilena, directed by Susan Nace, sang selections from Europe, including “Dancing Song” by Hungarian composer Zoltán Kodály.
Next, the always-entertaining boys a cappella group Guys’ Gig brought smiles and laughter to the show with pre-intermission picker-uppers.
Camerata, also directed by Nace, opened the second half of the show, finishing with Greg Gilpin’s “Keep on Walkin’ Down that Heavenly Road.”
Show choir Downbeat, co-directed by Sandusky and Laura Lang-Ree, came out of the gate with a rousing version of “Something’s Coming” from “West Side Story.” They were joined by Bel Canto for the final song of the evening, Carly Simon’s “Let the River Run.”
For the past few years, grade 3 students in Stephanie Woolsey’s math classes have ended their school year by forming a simulated startup company. In early June, using an internationally known program called BizWorld (BizWorld.org), the students once again worked together to create a business in a real-world environment.
The BizWorld program is designed specifically for elementary and middle school age children, allowing them to engage in hands-on activities that promote financial responsibility, leadership and teamwork skills.
Students are placed into small groups and choose officers, name their company, and then create a design for friendship bracelets, Woolsey explained. Next they manufacture, market and sell them to parents and other students in the culminating “BizWorld Bazaar.”
Like any Silicon Valley startup, however, the new entrepreneurs require funding to get their businesses up and running. “So parents, teachers, and even Sarah Leonard, primary division head, got in on the act and put the company’s CEO and VP of finance through the paces with questions to prove that their company is a good investment,” recalled Woolsey.
Woolsey began using the BizWorld program to give her students practical math experience. She said she continues to use it because it both builds math skills, and provides a great opportunity for teamwork and interaction with parents and students from other grades.
“It gave me a chance to work with people I’ve never worked with before and helped me improve my math,” said student Rachel Ning.
Classmate Rohan Gorti called the program extremely fun but very hard. “Selling things was hard because people are very picky,” he explained.
“It’s fun making bracelets,” peer Claire Chen added.
BizWorld was originally founded in 1997 by venture capitalist Tim Draper, who saw a need to inspire entrepreneurship in children. Since then, the company has distributed innovative programs to teachers in more than 80 countries and has reached over 450,000 students and 8,000 educators.
“Bizworld is really fun to do and it teaches you about teamwork and about business,” said student Laurie Jin.
This story was submitted by middle school debate teacher Karina Momary.
The middle school speech and debate team was awarded the Overall School of Excellence Award for the third year in a row at the National Speech & Debate Tournament, held in Kansas in June. The award, based on the overall success of the team, is given to the top three middle school programs in the country.
Notable achievements at the event included two National Championships. The team of Aliesa Bahri and Megan Huynh, both rising freshmen, won the National Championship in Policy Debate, debating the pros and cons of economic engagement with Mexico. Nikhil Dharmaraj, a rising eighth grader, won the National Championship in Original Oratory, presenting a 10-minute memorized speech he wrote about talent versus practice. These two wins mark the sixth and seventh National Championships earned by the middle school debate team since 2010.
Attending the tournament were 730 students from 100 schools spanning 31 states, the Northern Mariana Islands, Canada and Taiwan. Those students constituted more than 1,200 entries across 14 speech and debate events. Harker was one of the larger entries, with 29 students competing in eight events.
Middle school English teacher Marjorie Hazeltine helped the speech students prepare throughout the year. Upper school debate teachers Jenny Alme, Greg Achten and Carol Green joined the team at Nationals and helped coach the students to perform to their level of success.
On a sunny spring afternoon in late May, the lower school’s outdoor field was magically transformed into “middle earth,” complete with interactive goblin slayings and wizard encounters. The annual grade 5 Hobbit Battle, in which students played both imaginatively and collaboratively, was the culmination of an exploration of medieval literature.
“It made the literature we had earlier read in language arts come to life out on our field. We invited a renowned LARP (medieval sword) master to lead the games with the students, and many teachers played along as well,” recalled Annamaria Smitherman, grade 5 language arts teacher.
More than a dozen Harker students are on a summer research trip in Tanzania, and upper school biology teacher Mike Pistacchi sent some updates on this amazing trip!
June 7:
We woke up this morning to the sight of zebras and elands drinking from a pond 100 feet from our rooms. Then we headed out to Mt. Kilimanjaro for a beautiful hike through a pristine cloud forest (we only stopped 17,000 vertical feet short of the summit!). We then drove down to the savannah where, on the way to our lodge in Tarangire National Park, we sighted zebras, elephants, warthogs, impalas, vervet monkeys and a brown snake eagle! Now we are sitting on the lodge patio with a 180-degree view out over the park as we wait for dinner to be served. Tough life on safari …
June 8:
Today we had an amazing day, spending the entire time exploring Tarangire National Park by Jeep. We saw an absolutely stunning number of animals today, including impalas, zebras, elephants, the largest buffalo herd imaginable (think 500-plus giant animals all staring at your car) and even found ourselves in the midst of a group of female and baby elephants that wandered within 20 feet of our Jeeps while we snapped pictures. We also conducted our first transect study, as the students collected data including animal counts, group sizes, GPS locations and distributions. We will be comparing the data collected today with the data from three other parks as we assess biodiversity in various ecosystems. Other activities today included discussions of legal and social issues in the country, the ecological importance of permanent water sources in the savannah and the increasing fragmentation of giraffe populations in Africa. So yes, we are tired, but happy!
Tomorrow morning we leave to study anthropology in the Olduvai Gorge World Heritage Site (where our earliest hominid ancestors lived) and then head to a three-night stay in the Serengeti National Park.
June 12:
We’re now lounging in the extremely plush Ngorongoro Sopa Lodge after three amazing days and nights “glamping” in a tent camp in the Serengeti wilderness. We had several days of game driving in the Serengeti, in which we saw all of the big five (leopards, buffalo, lions, elephants and rhinos) in one day; most of the group even got to see a cheetah stalk, chase and kill a gazelle (this is a very rare experience). We also were incredibly lucky to see three of the world’s last remaining wild black rhinoceroses in their natural habitat. At night we could hear lions roaring and hyenas laughing outside of our tents. Quite the full-immersion safari experience!
Tonight we are at the aforementioned Sopa Lodge, where our rooms look out over a 4,000-foot drop to the world’s largest volcanic crater (technically a caldera). We can see about 30 miles out over the crater which is full of wildebeests and other wildlife. Needless to say, it is breathtaking.
Tomorrow morning we get a bit of a sleep-in and then we make the transition from “safari” to “cultural and social immersion” as we spend the next three days visiting several tribes and immersing ourselves in their lifestyles. This will include fishing with the Datoga (tomorrow) and a pre-dawn hunting excursion with the Hadzabe, Africa’s last full-time hunting and gathering tribe (note: we will not be doing the hunting!) We will also be visiting and volunteering with the various charity groups that we have been raising money for and running an eye clinic for the Maasai tribe.
June 14:
Today we had the true once-in-a-lifetime experience of meeting and spending the morning with a group of Hadzabe, Africa’s last hunting-gathering tribe. This was not a tourist experience; our guides arranged for us to meet this group based on their long relationship with the tribe. When we found their camp out in the Lake Eyasi wilderness we sat around the campfire with them and both sides asked questions of the other out of mutual curiosity. The Hadzabe were impressed by our students’ politeness and puzzled by our assertions that in our society women can be equal to men even though women are not strong enough to fight off dangerous animals. We asked one Hadzabe woman if she had ever been to the town and she had no idea what a town was. Clearly a unique cultural experience!
On our part, we got to talk to the women about what their lives are like and learn about medicine and how to shoot arrows with the men. After some archery practice we headed out with the skin-clad hunters on a two hour hunt, literally running through the bush with the hunters and their dogs fanning out in front seeking game. The hunters were armed only with bows and a variety of arrows, some poisoned with a local tree sap. They did not manage to find any antelope or baboons (apparently the tastiest animal) but they made some amazing shots and brought down several birds, which they roasted on their fires back at the huts.
After our Hadzabe visit we got on the road and after a stop to do some souvenir shopping (and lots of haggling) we made it to Lake Manyara.
Tonight everyone is totally exhausted, no doubt thanks to the overwhelming cultural immersion of the morning!
More than a dozen Harker students are on a summer research trip in Tanzania, and upper school biology teacher Mike Pistacchi sent some updates on this amazing trip!
June 7:
We woke up this morning to the sight of zebras and elands drinking from a pond 100 feet from our rooms. Then we headed out to Mt. Kilimanjaro for a beautiful hike through a pristine cloud forest (we only stopped 17,000 vertical feet short of the summit!). We then drove down to the savannah where, on the way to our lodge in Tarangire National Park, we sighted zebras, elephants, warthogs, impalas, vervet monkeys and a brown snake eagle! Now we are sitting on the lodge patio with a 180-degree view out over the park as we wait for dinner to be served. Tough life on safari …
June 8:
Today we had an amazing day, spending the entire time exploring Tarangire National Park by Jeep. We saw an absolutely stunning number of animals today, including impalas, zebras, elephants, the largest buffalo herd imaginable (think 500-plus giant animals all staring at your car) and even found ourselves in the midst of a group of female and baby elephants that wandered within 20 feet of our Jeeps while we snapped pictures. We also conducted our first transect study, as the students collected data including animal counts, group sizes, GPS locations and distributions. We will be comparing the data collected today with the data from three other parks as we assess biodiversity in various ecosystems. Other activities today included discussions of legal and social issues in the country, the ecological importance of permanent water sources in the savannah and the increasing fragmentation of giraffe populations in Africa. So yes, we are tired, but happy!
Tomorrow morning we leave to study anthropology in the Olduvai Gorge World Heritage Site (where our earliest hominid ancestors lived) and then head to a three-night stay in the Serengeti National Park.
June 12:
We’re now lounging in the extremely plush Ngorongoro Sopa Lodge after three amazing days and nights “glamping” in a tent camp in the Serengeti wilderness. We had several days of game driving in the Serengeti, in which we saw all of the big five (leopards, buffalo, lions, elephants and rhinos) in one day; most of the group even got to see a cheetah stalk, chase and kill a gazelle (this is a very rare experience). We also were incredibly lucky to see three of the world’s last remaining wild black rhinoceroses in their natural habitat. At night we could hear lions roaring and hyenas laughing outside of our tents. Quite the full-immersion safari experience!
Tonight we are at the aforementioned Sopa Lodge, where our rooms look out over a 4,000-foot drop to the world’s largest volcanic crater (technically a caldera). We can see about 30 miles out over the crater which is full of wildebeests and other wildlife. Needless to say, it is breathtaking.
Tomorrow morning we get a bit of a sleep-in and then we make the transition from “safari” to “cultural and social immersion” as we spend the next three days visiting several tribes and immersing ourselves in their lifestyles. This will include fishing with the Datoga (tomorrow) and a pre-dawn hunting excursion with the Hadzabe, Africa’s last full-time hunting and gathering tribe (note: we will not be doing the hunting!) We will also be visiting and volunteering with the various charity groups that we have been raising money for and running an eye clinic for the Maasai tribe.
June 14:
Today we had the true once-in-a-lifetime experience of meeting and spending the morning with a group of Hadzabe, Africa’s last hunting-gathering tribe. This was not a tourist experience; our guides arranged for us to meet this group based on their long relationship with the tribe. When we found their camp out in the Lake Eyasi wilderness we sat around the campfire with them and both sides asked questions of the other out of mutual curiosity. The Hadzabe were impressed by our students’ politeness and puzzled by our assertions that in our society women can be equal to men even though women are not strong enough to fight off dangerous animals. We asked one Hadzabe woman if she had ever been to the town and she had no idea what a town was. Clearly a unique cultural experience!
On our part, we got to talk to the women about what their lives are like and learn about medicine and how to shoot arrows with the men. After some archery practice we headed out with the skin-clad hunters on a two hour hunt, literally running through the bush with the hunters and their dogs fanning out in front seeking game. The hunters were armed only with bows and a variety of arrows, some poisoned with a local tree sap. They did not manage to find any antelope or baboons (apparently the tastiest animal) but they made some amazing shots and brought down several birds, which they roasted on their fires back at the huts.
After our Hadzabe visit we got on the road and after a stop to do some souvenir shopping (and lots of haggling) we made it to Lake Manyara.
Tonight everyone is totally exhausted, no doubt thanks to the overwhelming cultural immersion of the morning!
More than a dozen Harker students are on a summer research trip in Tanzania, and upper school biology teacher Mike Pistacchi sent some updates on this amazing trip!
June 7:
We woke up this morning to the sight of zebras and elands drinking from a pond 100 feet from our rooms. Then we headed out to Mt. Kilimanjaro for a beautiful hike through a pristine cloud forest (we only stopped 17,000 vertical feet short of the summit!). We then drove down to the savannah where, on the way to our lodge in Tarangire National Park, we sighted zebras, elephants, warthogs, impalas, vervet monkeys and a brown snake eagle! Now we are sitting on the lodge patio with a 180-degree view out over the park as we wait for dinner to be served. Tough life on safari …
June 8:
Today we had an amazing day, spending the entire time exploring Tarangire National Park by Jeep. We saw an absolutely stunning number of animals today, including impalas, zebras, elephants, the largest buffalo herd imaginable (think 500-plus giant animals all staring at your car) and even found ourselves in the midst of a group of female and baby elephants that wandered within 20 feet of our Jeeps while we snapped pictures. We also conducted our first transect study, as the students collected data including animal counts, group sizes, GPS locations and distributions. We will be comparing the data collected today with the data from three other parks as we assess biodiversity in various ecosystems. Other activities today included discussions of legal and social issues in the country, the ecological importance of permanent water sources in the savannah and the increasing fragmentation of giraffe populations in Africa. So yes, we are tired, but happy!
Tomorrow morning we leave to study anthropology in the Olduvai Gorge World Heritage Site (where our earliest hominid ancestors lived) and then head to a three-night stay in the Serengeti National Park.
June 12:
We’re now lounging in the extremely plush Ngorongoro Sopa Lodge after three amazing days and nights “glamping” in a tent camp in the Serengeti wilderness. We had several days of game driving in the Serengeti, in which we saw all of the big five (leopards, buffalo, lions, elephants and rhinos) in one day; most of the group even got to see a cheetah stalk, chase and kill a gazelle (this is a very rare experience). We also were incredibly lucky to see three of the world’s last remaining wild black rhinoceroses in their natural habitat. At night we could hear lions roaring and hyenas laughing outside of our tents. Quite the full-immersion safari experience!
Tonight we are at the aforementioned Sopa Lodge, where our rooms look out over a 4,000-foot drop to the world’s largest volcanic crater (technically a caldera). We can see about 30 miles out over the crater which is full of wildebeests and other wildlife. Needless to say, it is breathtaking.
Tomorrow morning we get a bit of a sleep-in and then we make the transition from “safari” to “cultural and social immersion” as we spend the next three days visiting several tribes and immersing ourselves in their lifestyles. This will include fishing with the Datoga (tomorrow) and a pre-dawn hunting excursion with the Hadzabe, Africa’s last full-time hunting and gathering tribe (note: we will not be doing the hunting!) We will also be visiting and volunteering with the various charity groups that we have been raising money for and running an eye clinic for the Maasai tribe.
June 14:
Today we had the true once-in-a-lifetime experience of meeting and spending the morning with a group of Hadzabe, Africa’s last hunting-gathering tribe. This was not a tourist experience; our guides arranged for us to meet this group based on their long relationship with the tribe. When we found their camp out in the Lake Eyasi wilderness we sat around the campfire with them and both sides asked questions of the other out of mutual curiosity. The Hadzabe were impressed by our students’ politeness and puzzled by our assertions that in our society women can be equal to men even though women are not strong enough to fight off dangerous animals. We asked one Hadzabe woman if she had ever been to the town and she had no idea what a town was. Clearly a unique cultural experience!
On our part, we got to talk to the women about what their lives are like and learn about medicine and how to shoot arrows with the men. After some archery practice we headed out with the skin-clad hunters on a two hour hunt, literally running through the bush with the hunters and their dogs fanning out in front seeking game. The hunters were armed only with bows and a variety of arrows, some poisoned with a local tree sap. They did not manage to find any antelope or baboons (apparently the tastiest animal) but they made some amazing shots and brought down several birds, which they roasted on their fires back at the huts.
After our Hadzabe visit we got on the road and after a stop to do some souvenir shopping (and lots of haggling) we made it to Lake Manyara.
Tonight everyone is totally exhausted, no doubt thanks to the overwhelming cultural immersion of the morning!
This year’s Spring Orchestra Concert on April 18 brought the middle and upper schools orchestras together on stage at the Mexican Heritage Plaza Theater in San Jose, delighting the audience with traditional, classical and modern selections.
A trio of grade 6 groups, led by director Dave Hart, performed first. Grade 6 Winds first played the traditional Irish folk tune “Danny Boy,” followed by “Let It Go” from the 2013 Disney film “Frozen,” with both pieces arranged by the students of the ensemble.
A set by grade 6 Strings, also directed by Hart, spanned several centuries, beginning with Reinhold Gliere’s “Russian Sailor’s Dance.” The group followed this with the famous “Scarborough Fair” before finishing with a symphonic rendition of Coldplay’s “Viva La Vida.”
A special treat that evening was a series of performances by the middle school chamber groups. The first was an all-grade 7 ensemble comprising Christie Chen on alto saxophone, Arushee Bhoja and Connie Xu on guitar, Donna Boucher on flute and Sonal Muthal on violin. Grade 7 students Arthur Oung on cello and Tiffany Wong on harp were the second group to perform, and the grade 8 duo of Justin Au on flute and Andrew Semenza on piano played third.
The strains of Brahms’ “Hungarian Dance No. 5” rang through the theater as the Grades 7-8 Orchestra began its set, which also included the Symphonic Suite from “The Lord of the Rings” by Howard Shore and Tchaikovsky’s “Serenade for Strings Mvt. IV.”
The Harker School Orchestra, directed by Chris Florio, fresh off of winning a Gold Award at the Chicago International Music Festival, headlined the evening, playing works from Wagner, Shostakovich and Mozart. A highlight was the West Coast premiere of Jeremy Van Buskirk’s “… such as I am you shall be,” which the orchestra played for the first time in Chicago.