Laura Lang-Ree, Harker performing arts chair, and Ann Luceña ’04 both performed Saturday at South Bay Musical Theatre’s 60th anniversary celebration, “Welcome to the Sixties.” Lang-Ree sang a solo rendition of “See What It Gets You” from Stephen Sondheim’s “Anyone Can Whistle,” while Luceña was a part of a group that performed a medley of 1960s folk songs, including “Blowin’ in the Wind,” “Leaving on a Jet Plane,” and “Scarborough Fair/Canticle.” During her time at Harker, Luceña was a member of the middle school choral group, Harmonics. She most recently served as the CEO of San Ramon Regional Medical Center.
Arushi Sharma, grade 11, performed earlier this month at Carnegie Hall in New York City as part of the Winners Recital of the American Protégé International Vocal Competition. Sharma was named a second place winner in the competition’s intermediate category. Her performance of Giacomo Puccini’s “O Mio Babbino Caro” was well-received by the audience in attendance. Sharma, who has been in vocal training for more than 10 years, is a member of Harker’s Cantilena vocal group and also has participated in Harker musical theater productions since grade 9.
The 2023 upper school spring musical, “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” has been nominated for Rita Moreno Awards for Overall Production and Outstanding Actress (Selina Xu, grade 11). A total of 36 productions – as well as 263 individual performers – were nominated in the competition, which includes high school theater programs north of Santa Barbara. Students who win Outstanding Actress and Outstanding Actor will head to New York City for the National High School Musical Theatre Awards, where they will showcase for industry professionals and compete for scholarships. As part of the competition, the cast of “Spelling Bee” will perform a seven-minute compilation of scenes from the show on May 8 at the San Jose Center for Performing Arts. Tickets are available.
Downbeat, the upper school’s show choir group directed by teachers Jennifer Sandusky and Laura Lang-Ree, competed this past weekend in the quarterfinals of the International Competition of High School A Capella, placing fourth in ICHSA’s West region. Samvita Gautham, grade 12, was awarded for Best Student Choreography for Downbeat’s performance of No Doubt’s “Just a Girl.” Downbeat competed against 200 other schools to reach this stage of the annual competition. Held by Varsity Vocals, the ICHSA and its collegiate-level counterpart attract thousands of singers every year. The competitions were made famous by the “Pitch Perfect” series of films, in which the collegiate-level competition is prominently featured.
Last month, junior Shayla He was nominated for a Hollywood Music in Media Award (HMMA) in the Original Recording category. The HMMAs honor up-and-coming independent artists in a wide variety of categories. Shayla, who is a member of the upper school show choir Downbeat, attended the Hollywood Music in Media Academy’s award ceremony earlier this month in Hollywood, where she had the opportunity to see performances by Grammy winners Charles Fox and Diane Warren. Celebrities including Tom Hanks were also in attendance.
Earlier this week, Ethan Guan, grade 10, was named the K-8 winner in the 2022 Electronic Music Composition Competition held by the National Association for Music Educators (NAfME). Guan’s piece, “No Shame in Games,” earned him a cash prize and can be heard via the NAfME website. He composed the piece as a seventh grader in 2020, thus making him eligible for the competition. This competition is meant to demonstrate the various ways music technology has enhanced music education and is open to K-8, high school and college students.
13 Harker singers were recently named members of the California Choral Directors Association (CCDA) Coastal Region Honor Choir. Seniors Ava Arasan, Aria Jain, Sukrit Kalsi and Anika Pandey; juniors Arjun Gurjar, Shayla He, Katelyn Hsu, Miki Mitarai and Arushi Sharma; sophomore Hasini Namala; and freshmen Helen Gu, Charlotte Ludlow and Aditya Ramanathan will spend the next several weeks readying their repertoire for a special performance at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in November.
At Friday night’s Senior Showcase, 17 seniors became graduates of the Harker Conservatory’s certificate program, each having spent four years studying one of the conservatory’s six disciplines: vocal music, instrumental music, dance, theater, musical theater and technical theater. The evening also included performances from the graduates and the presentation of the Life in the Arts award to Steve Boyle ’06.
The slide show included in this story features each of this year’s Conservatory graduates, in the order they are listed below:
The American High School Theatre Festival has invited the Harker Conservatory’s musical theater program to perform their production of “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” at the 2023 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the world’s largest international arts festival. More than 450 schools applied to be one of the 25 selected, making this one of the most competitive seasons in AHSTF’s history. Harker has performed at Fringe every four years since first being invited in 2007.
“Director [Laura] Lang-Ree’s program at The Harker School once again shines as one of the best applications we have seen this year,” said a spokesperson for AHSTF. “Hundreds of schools around the world have applied this year and while we have an extensive waiting list, this theater program is one of 25 that immediately got through as a finalist for AHSTF once again.”
Audrey Kwong ’07, a Harker Conservatory graduate who currently works as artistic operations manager for the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, has been producing virtual concerts during the COVID-19 pandemic. “I score call for cameras during the filming itself, and then work with a video editor to produce the videos themselves once we get into post-production,” she said. Her latest project is a performance of Edward Elgar’s “Sea Pictures,” Jake Heggie’s “The Work at Hand” and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Scheherazade,” featuring mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke and cellist Elizabeth Chung. It is available to purchase at the SLSO website.