In late April, the Harker Conservatory presented the stage version of the hit Disney film “High School Musical,” directed by Laura Lang-Ree, in which the students of Albuquerque, N.M.’s East High School vie for parts in an upcoming production of “Romeo and Juliet.” Star athlete Troy (Kayvon Solaimanpour) and shy new girl Gabriella (Chetana Kalidindi) unexpectedly become the top candidates for the coveted lead roles, which threatens to undo the social order of East High.
Complex and energetic musical numbers, courtesy of musical director Catherine Snider and choreographer Katie Champlin, dazzled the audience, and set designer Paul Vallerga’s understated rendering of East High School allowed for a variety of settings, providing the cast with ample play room. The student crew, headed up by stage manager and Harker alum Michael Prutton ’11, kept things flowing behind the scenes to ensure a smooth production.
The annual grade 2 production of the Ogre Awards took place in late March at the Bucknall Theater, where this year’s cast traveled “Around the World in 80 Pages.” Students portrayed characters from stories originating from places including Hawaii, Ghana, Russia and Vietnam.
During the preceding months, the students heard stories from various cultures (told by lower school librarian Kathy Clark) and had lengthy discussions about each story’s characters and the different archetypes they represented. They later voted on which characters would win awards in various categories. Students then played these characters in the Ogre Awards show, where they were presented with the awards.
The theme for the show was based on the classic Jules Verne novel “Around the World in 80 Days,” and rose out of an amusing wager between Clark and fellow lower school librarian Judy Atterholt.
“Ms. Atterholt and I bet on the fastest way to get around the world in stories: through nonfiction like atlases and geography textbooks, or through fiction and folklore,” said Clark.
Lower school technical theater teacher Danny Dunn provided considerable help by tracking down variations of “It’s a Small World (After All)” that were based on musical traditions from the cultures represented in the show.
As has become tradition in the 20-plus-year history of the Ogre Awards, a special Ogre Award was bestowed upon a Harker staff member for his or her support of Harker’s libraries. This year’s recipient was none other than Dan Hudkins, director of information technology service and support. “Mr. Hudkins has always been a library advocate, even before he was a founding member of the school’s Information Literacy Committee,” Clark said.
Late March was a special time for the students in the Harker School Orchestra, who headed to New York City to perform at the famous Carnegie Hall as part of the New York Sounds of Spring festival, hosted by World Projects. The March 28 performance consisted of pieces by Modest Mussorgsky, Dmitry Kabalevsky and John Williams. The orchestra also had the distinct honor of debuting a piece by composer John Carnahan titled “Les Bourgeon Du Printemps.” The momentous occasion prompted dozens of Harker parents and several alumni to attend the concert. Students also had the pleasure of attending a clinic conducted by Carnahan, who is the director of bands and a professor of conducting at California State University Long Beach’s Bob Cole Conservatory of Music.
Under the direction of upper school music teacher Chris Florio, the orchestra spent months preparing for trip, which Florio had been organizing for two years. Luckily, there was also time to enjoy some of the many sights the big city had on offer. Outings during the trip included a visit to the Statue of Liberty and attending a performance of “Anastasia” on Broadway.
Head on over to Harker Aquila for the full story! Audio recordings of the Carnegie Hall performance are available via Soundcloud.
Upper school Shakespeare enthusiasts made their way to the gym in late January for a competition in which participants performed monologues from Shakespeare plays. One of these students, senior Zahra Budhwani, was chosen as the best of the 16 performers by a panel of judges that included Harker English teachers Pauline Paskali, Christopher Hurshman and Charles Shuttleworth, as well as drama teacher Jeff Draper. After guidance and support from Draper, Budhwani went on to compete at the regional round of the National Shakespeare Competition, organized by the English-Speaking Union of the United States, where she performed a monologue and a sonnet. Though she did not win the regional event, Budhwani “performed admirably in representing our school,” Shuttleworth said.
Last week, 150 dancers lit up the stage at the Blackford Theater for the middle school performing arts department’s annual Dance Jamz production. Directed by Gail Palmer, who also acted as a choreographer along with Kimberley Teodoro, Kento Vo, Jessalyn Espiritu, Alexandra Venter, Rachelle Haun and Brianna Alday, the show featured 18 routines performed to songs by Ciara, Imagine Dragons, David Guetta and The Black Eyed Peas. Check out the accompanying photos for a look at the excitement!
Lower, middle and upper school vocalists performed together at this year’s United Voices concert, held March 16 at the Blackford Theater. The groups featured included the grades 4-5 Bucknall Choir, the grade 6 choir Dynamics, the grades 7-8 choir Vivace and the upper school’s show choir Downbeat. As in previous years, all participants appeared on stage for the finale, a performance of Rollo Dilworth’s “Everlasting Melody.”
Middle school cellist Angeline Kiang, grade 7, recently won first prize in the second edition of the Enkor International Music Competition, in the strings category for musicians ages 11-15. A member of the Grades 7-8 Orchestra, Kiang scored a stellar 94.37 from the jury, which comprises more than 500 members.
In mid-February, celebrity vocal coach Lisa Popeil held a special workshop for Harker Conservatory students in music teacher Susan Nace’s classroom. Widely recognized as one of America’s top singing experts, Los Angeles-based Popeil has performed with artists including Frank Zappa and “Weird Al” Yankovic and has long been an in-demand vocal instructor among professional singers, actors, managers and record producers.
Nace noticed Popeil’s work two years ago while attending a San Francisco workshop and organized the Harker workshop as part of the Harker Conservatory’s certificate program. Popeil demonstrated breathing and singing techniques in a wide variety of vocal styles, including pop, rock, rhythm and blues, musical theater and opera. “Lisa is very good at teaching concepts clearly and efficiently as she has worked with all the major international voice researchers in their labs,” said Nace.
Preschoolers were treated to the third of four Arts LIVE concerts, this one featuring both the upper school Junior Varsity Dance team and the boy’s hip-hop group, Kinetic Krew. The show included a variety of dance styles that included, jazz, ballet and hip-hop.
The dancers taught the children some simple warm-up stretches and a short dance routine. Each child received a Family Coloring & Activity Booklet, created by Mara Beckerman, the preschool’s music and movement specialist, to encourage conversation about the concert. The booklet contains photos from the performance, including the audience, as well as activities and coloring pages for parents to do with their children. It was a great show and the upper school students really enjoyed sharing their talents with the younger students! See the short video on Instagram at harkerschool.
A huge cast of 170 students twirled and tumbled their way through this year’s upper school dance production, “Circus,” held Jan. 27-28 at the Blackford Theater. Songs and routines were themed around the daring and bedazzling performances of three-ring circuses, with students dancing to songs including “Everybody Loves a Circus Show” by Take That, “Funhouse” by Pink and “Tightrope” by Janelle Monae. Continuing the long-standing tradition of faculty members performing at the show, Pilar Aguero-Esparza, Kristina Alaniz, Jill Bettencourt, Shaun Kelley Jahshan, Susan King, Diane Main, Suneeta Mani, Sue Prutton and Victor Squillacioti took the stage for a number driven by Flo Rida’s “Right Round.”