In late April, the middle school choir Vivace traveled to Anaheim for the Heritage Music Festival, where it earned third place among the six junior high and high school choral ensembles. Vivace earned high marks from the professors at the festival, who commented on the musicality in their performance. The ensemble also was invited to the 2015 Festival of Gold in San Francisco, an honor reserved only for groups that are rated 90 or higher. To celebrate, the group visited Disneyland the following day. “It was a blast!” said Dave Hart, middle school music teacher and Vivace director.
This article originally appeared in the summer 2014 Harker Quarterly.
In early May, the kindergarten classes of Katie Florio, Kimberly Sandoval, Michelle Anderson and Katherine Chi each performed a special show for morning audiences titled “The Bear Went Over the Mountain.”
Inspired by the popular children’s song of the same name, the show featured kindergarten students dressed up as different animals, each helping their friend Da Bear in his journey over the mountain. The show was directed by music teacher Carena Montany and choreographed by dance teacher Gail Palmer. With each class putting on a separate show, every student got to sing, dance and help carry forward the bear’s efforts to climb the mountain with its friends’ help. The cuteness factor, with all the little ones dressed in furry animal costumes, was off the meter!
This article originally appeared in the summer 2014 Harker Quarterly.
Harker singers from the lower, middle and upper schools gathered at San Jose’s Mexican Heritage Plaza Theater on April 1 for this year’s United Voices concert. Kellie Binney-Smart led the Bucknall Choir in the night’s opening performance of W.B. Yeats’ “The Sally Gardens,” set to music by Benjamin Britten, before moving on to Bret McKenzie’s “Life’s a Happy Song” from “The Muppets.”
Dazzling performances by the middle school groups followed, with highlights including Dynamics’ rendition of Kirby Shaw’s “Happiness Is …,” led by Mary Ellen Agnew-Place; a performance of Duke Ellington and Don George’s “Hit Me With a Hot Note” by the grades 7-8 show choir Harmonics, directed by Agnew-Place and Monica Colletti; and Vivace’s version of the Phillip Phillips hit “Home,” directed by Dave Hart.
Meanwhile, upper school introductory choir Bel Canto, directed by Jennifer Sandusky, delighted the audience with a medley of Brazilian folk songs and the Susan Nace-directed intermediate vocal ensemble Camerata sang “Dirait-on” from “Les Chansons de Roses.” Female vocal group Cantilena, also directed by Nace, displayed its multicultural talents with versions of Debussy’s “Nuits d’étoiles” and “Dravidian Dithyramb” by Victor Paranjoti. Soon after, Downbeat, codirected by Sandusky and Laura Lang-Ree, showed up to bring the house down, concluding with the Jason Mraz hit “I’m Yours/Over the Rainbow.”
As has become tradition, the show ended with all of the night’s singers assembled onstage for a special closing number, singing “O Sifuni Mungu” by David Maddux.
This article originally appeared in the summer 2014 Harker Quarterly.
Numerous lower school musical groups performed at this year’s Spring Music Concert, held May 8 at the Bucknall Theater. Spanning many genres and time periods, the concert featured notable performances from the Lower School Orchestra, Lower School Jazz Ensemble, Bucknall Choir and more, with a special appearance by the Guitar Group, which performed a classical guitar piece by Ferdinando Carulli, then skipped ahead a few centuries to play Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode.”
The concert also featured several stand-out solo performances from Harker students, including Maya Franz, grade 5, who performed the Dave Brubeck staple “Take Five,” and original compositions by Theodore Kratter, grade 1, Angeline Kiang, grade 4, and Paul Kratter and Anika Fuloria, both grade 5.
This article originally appeared in the summer 2014 Harker Quarterly.
This year’s lower school dance concert, titled “T.V. Time!” had students moving to the music of classic television shows from multiple eras. Songs were suggested by lower school faculty and staff, and the chosen songs were choreographed by our great faculty dance team!
Students danced to songs from iconic shows such as “Hawaii Five-O,” “The Simpsons, “Friends” and “Modern Family,” with each routine paying homage to the settings and characters from each show. Technical director Danny Dunn provided voice-overs and slideshow images relevant to the shows to which the production paid tribute.
This article originally appeared in the summer 2014 Harker Quarterly.
Neon, stone-washed denim and gallons of hairspray made a temporary comeback during the Harker Conservatory’s spring musical, “The Wedding Singer,” which played at the Blackford Theater in late April.
Mid-‘80s New Jersey was the setting for this lovable romantic comedy, directed by Laura Lang-Ree. Happy-go-lucky wedding singer Robbie (Ian Richardson, grade 12) goes from ecstatic to crestfallen when his longtime girlfriend Linda (Caroline Howells, grade 11) unceremoniously dumps him at the altar with a note. The resulting comedy drew plenty of laughs, as well as “oohs” and “ahhs” for the Katie O’Bryon choreographed musical sequences, not to mention “awws” for its heartfelt emotional center.
Set against the ostentatious backdrop of the 1980s, “The Wedding Singer” employed many nods to the culture of the decade. The musical’s score, fittingly filled with touches of synth pop and new wave, was wonderfully played by The Wedding Singer band, directed by Catherine Snider.
As with every major performing arts production, the student crew proved invaluable.
This article originally appeared in the summer 2014 Harker Quarterly.
Neon, stone-washed denim and gallons of hairspray made a temporary comeback during the Harker Conservatory’s spring musical, “The Wedding Singer,” which played at the Blackford Theater in late April.
Mid-‘80s New Jersey was the setting for this lovable romantic comedy, directed by Laura Lang-Ree. Happy-go-lucky wedding singer Robbie (Ian Richardson, grade 12) goes from ecstatic to crestfallen when his longtime girlfriend Linda (Caroline Howells, grade 11) unceremoniously dumps him at the altar with a note. The resulting comedy drew plenty of laughs, as well as “oohs” and “ahhs” for the Katie O’Bryon choreographed musical sequences, not to mention “awws” for its heartfelt emotional center.
Set against the ostentatious backdrop of the 1980s, “The Wedding Singer” employed many nods to the culture of the decade. The musical’s score, fittingly filled with touches of synth pop and new wave, was wonderfully played by The Wedding Singer band, directed by Catherine Snider.
As with every major performing arts production, the student crew proved invaluable.
This article originally appeared in the summer 2014 Harker Quarterly.
Neon, stone-washed denim and gallons of hairspray made a temporary comeback during the Harker Conservatory’s spring musical, “The Wedding Singer,” which played at the Blackford Theater in late April.
Mid-‘80s New Jersey was the setting for this lovable romantic comedy, directed by Laura Lang-Ree. Happy-go-lucky wedding singer Robbie (Ian Richardson, grade 12) goes from ecstatic to crestfallen when his longtime girlfriend Linda (Caroline Howells, grade 11) unceremoniously dumps him at the altar with a note. The resulting comedy drew plenty of laughs, as well as “oohs” and “ahhs” for the Katie O’Bryon choreographed musical sequences, not to mention “awws” for its heartfelt emotional center.
Set against the ostentatious backdrop of the 1980s, “The Wedding Singer” employed many nods to the culture of the decade. The musical’s score, fittingly filled with touches of synth pop and new wave, was wonderfully played by The Wedding Singer band, directed by Catherine Snider.
As with every major performing arts production, the student crew proved invaluable.
This article originally appeared in the summer 2014 Harker Quarterly.
The upper school student body gathered at the gym on May 22 to bid farewell to the Class of 2014, who graduated just days later. Entertainment was provided by performing arts, debate, student council and athletics. The Harker Jazz Band, Downbeat and Varsity Dance Troupe performed. The inclusion of several large programs allowed students from all classes, including seniors, to enjoy a final recap of the impact they’ve had on campus.
Harker forensics students staged a hilarious mock debate about whether the Class of 2014 would be missed, with both sides citing “research” from debate seniors as a way to work their names and the colleges they will attend into the skit.
In addition, the gathering provided the opportunity to recognize the year’s stand-out senior athletes and introduce the students who would serve on the Student Council for the upcoming school year.
History teacher Samuel Lepler was a driving force behind this new event, and according to Butch Keller, upper school head, the seniors enjoyed putting their “personal stamp” on it.
Amid the festivities leading up to graduation, seniors active in the performing arts have a pre-graduation of sorts: they graduate from the Harker Conservatory’s certificate program, signaling their successful completion of a four-year course in dance, technical theater, theater, vocal or instrumental music, or musical theater.
The evening before their Harker graduation at the Mountain Winery, 23 seniors performed selections from their portfolios to a packed house at the Mexican Heritage Plaza Theater in San Jose, and received their plaques from the performing arts faculty.
Acts ranged from a Shakespearean monologue, divided into two parts performed toward the beginning and end of the show by Damon Aitken, to a clarinet sonata during which the instrument was slowly dismantled section by section, leaving Daniel Pak with only a mouthpiece. Four dance graduates, Anishka Agarwal, Pooja Chirala, Jennifer Dai and Gaurav Kumar, called upon non-senior friends to accompany them in numbers that incorporated Bollywood, hip-hop, classical and modern grooves. Musical theater students Shenel Ekici, Anna Kendall, Sean Knudsen, Ian Richardson and Namrata Vakkalagadda enacted moments from Broadway shows.
Avinash Nayak and Stephan Pellissier showed off their vocal chops with a jazz standard and Italian aria, respectively, and Callie Ding wowed the crowd with a hauntingly beautiful piece played on a traditional Chinese harp. Pianist Justin Young transported the audience with a devilishly difficult piece by Paganini, adapted by Liszt. The robust instrumental department was rounded out by Krishan Kumar (flute), Nathan Dhablania (violin), Meena Chetty (saxophone), Sahithya Prakash (bassoon), Renu Singh (violin), Andrew Wang (jazz trumpet) and Dennis Moon (cello). The show was stage managed by technical theater graduate Nicky Semenza, and juniors Ishanya Anthapur and Jai Ahuja brought humor and energy to their roles as masters of ceremonies.