The Gerald Clayton Trio played to the largest Harker Concert Series audience yet on Jan. 20, a fine night for an indoor show, given the rainy weather. Middle school music teacher Dave Hart introduced Clayton, 27, a three-time Grammy award nominee who has worked with greats such Roy Hargrove, Lewis Nash and Clark Terry. Joining him on drums was Justin Brown, a graduate of the Dave Brubeck Institute and Juilliard, attending both on full scholarships. On bass was Matt Brewer, a professional performer since the age of 12 and a highly in-demand sideman, according to Clayton.
Appearing the very portrait of concentration, Clayton put hand to keys, performing a dissonant improvisation before segueing nicely into a slow and soft rendition of the standard “It Could Happen to You.” Brown used his brushes to great effect, adding an ethereal touch to his steady, nuanced technique. Both he and Brewer contributed the first of many tasteful solos that evening, while Clayton’s increasingly dexterous playing brought the song to an exciting finish.
Clayton followed up with “Major Hope,” an original composition that began with rapid staccato chords in shifting times, gradually swelling into an upbeat display of musicianship, featuring Clayton’s fluid improvisational skills and Brown’s exacting touch.
Clearly fond of standards, Clayton tossed the much-loved ballad “Blame it on My Youth” into his set, adding his own unique flourishes and syncopations. At one point, Clayton intimated to the audience that the band didn’t know what to play next. “Maybe that’s the genius of youth,” he remarked. “No plans.”
The trio’s version of “Body and Soul” was much appreciated by Bill and Cathy Fraser, both of them first-time attendees of the Harker Concert Series.
“It was beyond my expectations,” Bill Fraser, a longtime jazz listener, said of the show. “Particularly the couple of ballads they played …. It’s just rare when a jazz trio settles down in that mood and gets it.”
Roger Kim ’07, who studied music at the University of California, Berkeley, was also impressed with the show. “I see a lot of jazz, and this definitely was a unique experience,” he said, mentioning that the Clayton concert was among the best he’d seen.
Winston Wey ’07, who played with Harker’s jazz band during his high school years, said he had recently rekindled his interest in music and that Clayton’s performance was an inspiration to him. “I’m really impressed with the caliber of performers they get here,” he said.
Basketball: The Harker School’s boys varsity basketball was busy over winter break, chocking up numerous wins. Early in the break, they defeated Greenfield and Galileo in non-league matchups. The team then went 4-1 at the consolation championship at the Monta Vista Tournament to win it. The team lost to host Monta Vista in an exciting overtime match, and had defeats against Gunderson and Wilcox. The boys had a 7-3 record going into league contests, but then lost to Menlo in front of what Dan Molin, the upper school athletic director, described as, “a packed Blackford gym crowd.” The final score was 52-44, which dropped them to 8-4 overall, 1-1 in league play. “It was a great spirited event as the Knights proved to be a bit stronger this time,” Molin said.
The Harker girls basketball team had a busy break, as well. They competed in the Gunderson Tournament, where they finished sixth, going 2-3 with defeats over Prospect and James Lick, and losses to strong teams from Branham, Oak Grove and Milpitas. Once back from break, the team defeated Capuchino High 53-31 to improve to 7-5 overall. Molin pointed out Daniza Rodriguez, grade 11 (who scored 16 points), Priscilla Auyeung, grade 11 (with 10 points and eight rebounds) and Nithya Vemireddy, grade 10 (with 14 rebounds), for their outstanding performances.
Soccer: The Harker girls soccer team competed in the Garces Tournament in Bakersfield, where they went 1-2 with a win over Arvin and suffered defeats to Taft and Burroughs. Nikita Parulkar, grade 9, was singled out by Molin for her score in the Arvin victory. The team went on to tie Summit Prep with a final score of 1-1. “Apurva Gorti, grade 10, scored for the Eagles, assisted by Julia Fink, grade 10,” Molin said. The girls now have a 3-1-1 league record.
The Harker boys soccer team competed over break, defeating St. Francis-Watsonville with a final score of 4-1 and tying Pioneer High to improve their league record to 2-1-1 overall. After break was over, the boys suffered a defeat to what Molin called “league power” Sacred Heart Prep on Davis Field, making their current league standing 3-2-1 overall.
Wrestling: Freshman wrestler Corey Gonzales continues to impress; Molin reported that he earned his first dual meet victory over Homestead in December in the 106 lb. class, and is now “listed as CCS honorable mention due to his 6-1 overall record.” Molin also noted Darian Edvalson, grade 10, who earned a victory over his Lynbrook opponent recently, along with Vishal Vaidya, grade 9 and Vincent Lin, grade 10, saying they are doing well in their young wrestling careers.
In mid-January, The Harker School had its 2012 Winter Concert at the Mexican Heritage Theater in San Jose. The show featured the middle school orchestras and jazz band for the first part of the evening, with the upper school orchestra and jazz band following right after. They were conducted by David Hart, middle school instrumental teacher, and Christopher Florio, upper school instrumental teacher.
The evening began with the Harker Winds, who played “Green Sleeves” and “Auld Lang Syne.” They were followed by the strings, who played “Canon,” and holiday favorite, “Joy to the World.” From there the grade 6 orchestra took the stage, for a performance that included a lively rendition of “The Can-Can,” and they were followed by the chamber ensemble performances. Then it was grades 7 and 8 turn to shine, which they certainly did through various jazz band pieces as well as through the orchestra’s three selections, which included an English folk song suite.
The upper school started off their portion of the evening with their jazz band, which played popular songs such as “Straighten Up and Fly Right.” After a short intermission, the upper school orchestra took the stage. They played four pieces, starting off with “Overture to ‘Candide’” and concluded the evening of performances with “Overture to ‘William Tell.’”
The Harker School’s lower school has two teams of grade 3 students competing in First Lego League (FLL) this year. FLL comes out with a new challenge every September based on a real-world topic involving science, and each challenge has three parts: the Robot Game, the Project and the FLL Core Values (which center around teamwork and gracious professionalism). In September 2011, the Food Factor Challenge was announced, and students at the lower school formed two teams (which can each have up to 10 students), named Robo Creators and Mindstorm Mastermind.
The project these two teams are exploring this year is food safety; they must investigate their food and find one way to improve its safe delivery to them. Recent scares around food safety, including the Listeria contamination in cantaloupes that led to 15 deaths in the U.S., were front and center for the two teams in early October, as they visited the Elkus Farm in Half Moon Bay.
The teams were exposed to organic farming techniques, food safety issues around animals and livestock and possible cross contamination sources in mixed environments. In addition to some serious discussions on food safety the kids had tremendous fun feeding chickens, goats, horses and numerous animals on this trip. As more than two thirds of the U.S. food supply comes from non-local and even international sources, better understanding and insights into these solutions via research from more than 200,000 children in 55 countries around the world in this year’s FLL competition will hopefully prove invaluable to this effort. FLL also hopes the project exposes students to new areas of science and technology, and introduces them to career options they never would have thought about.
Starting with a scrimmage in late October, the Robot Game portion of the challenge really got underway. To participate in the Robot Game, teams must program an autonomous robot to score points on a themed playing field. The lower school’s two teams were split into two different tournaments so that they don’t compete against each other. On a weekend in mid-November, Mindstorm Masterminds spent a full day at their regional qualifier tournament. According to team coach Jyoti Baid, “they had an amazing time,” and walked away as champions. They’ll now go on to compete at the state level. Part of their qualifying tournament involved a closed-door interview about the robot’s design. Baid says the students “walked in, promptly set up their gear, did a great job with the interview questions and behaved extremely professionally as a team.” By the end of the event, the head judge had announced that Mindstorm Masterminds was at the top of each category. They also ranked in the top four at the tournament for their robot’s design.
The following weekend, Robo Creators competed at St. Lawrence with an equally impressive performance, moving them to the state level competition as well. They had strong performances across all key areas, with the support of team coaches Jijen Vazhaeparambil, Gayatri Moorthy and Merwyn (Merv) Andrade. Andrade said the students had a “great day” competing. The team additionally won top honors from among the 15 teams competing for their innnovative research work on what they call a “Nitro Cabinet” to extend shelf life and prevent contamination of cherries.
Both teams will compete at the state level this month.
In early January, The Harker School alumni returned to the upper school campus to see old friends, teachers and advisors. MaryEllis Deacon, the director of alumni relations, said the alumni were also eager to “have some of the Harker food they miss.” More than 150 alumni – all college-aged – came back to the school to wander the campus again, and trade stories both about Harker days and current events in their lives. Deacon said, “Screams and hugs were exchanged from friends they haven’t seen in months or even years.” She particularly enjoyed watching the alumni talk about their favorite Harker memories, and seeing how excited they got to see their advisors and friends. “My favorite part was really getting to know the alumni, and hearing the stories they have to share,” she said.
The Harker School has always been proud of the talent and passion of its performing arts students; and their talent certainly doesn’t stop growing after graduation. The annual Alumni Conservatory Classic allows graduates – recent or not so recent – to return and show off all they’ve learned, accomplished, and become interested in since graduation. This year marked the fourth annual such show, which was well-attended by approximately 70 alumni along with staff such as MaryEllis Deacon, the director of alumni relations, and Susan Nace, a performing arts teacher.
Performances ranged from solos, including one by Christina Li ’11 accompanied by a dancer to illustrate the piece, to groups of musicians – a string quartet opened the evening – to songs in foreign languages alumni have mastered, including an impressive piece in French. Nace conducted a group of female alumni along with current student Tina Crnko, grade 12, blending the school’s past and present talent.
Deacon enjoyed all the performances, and along with them, enjoyed seeing students catch up with each other. “Seeing them reconnect and visit with friends is one of the best parts of alumni events, I believe,” she said. The alumni, parents and staff had the opportunity to see each other after the performance, and talk about life after Harker.
Students, faculty and staff all began their participation in the Harker Influenza Project on Tuesday, wearing electronic motes around their necks which measure and record their interactions with other people around campus.
Led by Dr. Marcel Salathe at Penn State, the project will examine how viral disease spreads on a high school campus. The motes, which are activated when within nine feet of one another, record the ID of the motes they come in contact with as well as the time and length of the interaction. Stationary motes were also been placed in every room on campus so that the neck-worn motes can record where each interaction took place.
Participants will also fill out a survey in which they will identify who they came in contact with and when. One purpose of the project is to demonstrate that human memory can be unreliable as a source of information about how disease spreads. “The only tool [researchers] had in the past are these surveys, and so there’s a goal in trying to compare this new method to decades of research that’s been done solely based on this process that probably isn’t that helpful,” said Kate Schafer, upper school biology teacher.
Dr. Vicky Barclay, one of the researchers from Penn State leading the project, was impressed by the number of students she saw wearing the motes. “It’s good to see that we have so many people participating again,” she said. “It just goes to show that Harker really is interested in research.”
Students around campus, such as Aaron Bisla, grade 12, enjoyed the opportunity to help the cause of science in a simple, hassle-free manner. “I don’t really notice [the mote], actually,” he said. “I just put it underneath my jacket and just pretend that it’s another normal day.”
Two more “mote-wearing” days are planned for February.
Five student-led project teams will also be assisting with the research, working on such tasks as developing a smartphone application and measuring carbon dioxide levels in various rooms on campus. Each team consists of three to five students and is directed by a lead investigator from grade 11, since the project is expected to last until after the Class of 2012 has graduated.
Ruchi Srivastava ’08 invited upper level Certamen competitors to join in the Rice University Owl Certamen this past weekend, which included academic subject tests, as well. Read an article about the event, including comments by Srivastava, on the Rice website.
The three Harker competitors, juniors Nik Datuashvili and Richard Fan, and sophomore Kevin Duraiswamy, trounced their competition – two teams from St. Johns school in Houston – in the final round. Harker garnered 160 points to 20 and 15 for the two other teams.
In addition to the Certamen win, each Harker competitor earned top level placing in the academic tests. Duraiswamy was first in Mottoes, Quotes and Abbreviations (Latin and Greek), Datuashvili was first in Latin Language, and Fan was second in Roman History and Life.
“Rice has a group of advanced Latin students who were top Certamen competitors in high school,” said Donald Morrison, professor of philosophy and classical studies and the faculty sponsor of the event. “They love the language and the culture and the competition so much that they organize and run this tournament for nearly 150 Houston-area secondary-school Latin students.”
The public is invited to the final rounds of Certamen, a quiz-bowl competition about all things Roman and Latin. “It’s like the final, championship round in a high school debate tournament,” Morrison said. “No other events are scheduled at that time, and all the participants gather in the auditorium to watch the best teams play.”
In mid-November, lower school teacher Jeannette Bhatia had Jan Pitcher, a local artist and author, come to her grade 3 science classes to share her Endangered Animals series, a printed series featuring endangered and extinct animals.
After talking to the class about endangered animals, a presentation that included the importance of recycling, Pitcher had the students do an art project. Following her presentation, students “each began researching an animal of their choice that lives in the United States,” said Bhatia. “Each child writes a summary about his or her animal and will later make a drawing of it. All of the written pieces and artwork are uploaded to Blurb, a website that will put all of the elements into an electronic book. Hard copies will be sent to some of our sister schools, and they will also be available for purchase.“
Pitcher’s impact on the class and their interest in endangered animals can be seen in letters students wrote to her afterwards. “You make me think about how every animal counts, and what we can do to help them,” said Andy Lee. Another student agreed, saying, “I did not realize how dangerous one plastic bag is.”
The students were excited to begin their research, partly, Bhatia thinks, because Pitcher’s presentation “was both inspiring and motivating.”
On Dec. 9, nearly 300 Harker students in grades 4-12 performed at holiday assemblies on all three campuses. Each campus’ show had its own orchestra in the opening slot, followed by dance and vocal groups from all across Harker’s expansive performing arts program. Louis Hoffman directed the lower school orchestra, with Dave Hart directing the orchestra at the middle school performance and Chris Florio at the helm of the upper school orchestra’s performance at the Saratoga campus. In between acts, students performed amusing skits to introduce the next performer.
The Bucknall Choir, directed by Jennifer Cowgill, sang “The 12 Days of Christmas” and “5 Minutes,” and was followed by Showstoppers, the middle school female dance ensemble directed by Rachelle Ellis, who performed an upbeat routine to the holiday classic “Jingle Bells.” Next, Cowgill’s upper school vocal group Bel Canto performed a rendition of “Sing We Fa La La,” and the upper school female vocal group Cantilena, directed by Susan Nace, sang “Carol of the Bells” and the Hebrew song “Shel Shoshanim.”
Other great vocal performances were provided by upper school chamber choir Camerata’s rendition of “Allons,” also directed by Nace, the middle school mixed choir Vivace singing “Danny Boy,” “Zat U Santa Claus,” by the middle school vocal group Harmonics, directed by Roxann Hagemeyer, the grade 6 choir Dynamics performing “Merry Christmas to Me,” directed by Hagemeyer and Monica Colletti, and the upper school show ensemble Downbeat performing “Hamisha Asar” and “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas,” directed by Catherine Snider and Laura Lang-Ree.
The show also featured performances from Harker’s many talented dancers, including the Karl Kuehn-directed middle school boys dance group High Voltage, the upper school’s junior varsity and varsity dance squads, the former directed by Amalia De La Rosa and the latter by De La Rosa and Kuehn, and the lower and middle school group Dance Fusion, directed by Gail Palmer. To close the show, Harmonics, Dance Fusion, Downbeat and Dynamics all took the stage for the finale, wishing the crowd Happy Holidays in raucous fashion. At the lower school campus, the finale included all groups leading the traditional sing-a-long with a very excited young audience.