Three Harker students were recently selected to be members of 2020 California All-State ensembles that will perform at the California All-State Music Education Conference in Fresno on Feb. 21. Varun Fuloria, grade 8, was selected to be the drummer for the Junior High School Jazz Band. Violinist April Zhang, grade 10, successfully auditioned for the High School Symphony Orchestra, and freshman violinist Sawyer Lai will join the High School String Orchestra. All students went through a rigorous audition process, which involved submitting recordings to judges for evaluation.
On Friday night, this year’s Summer @ the Conservatory program completed its three-week camp with a showcase featuring three shows brimming with talent from students, alumni and faculty. The days leading up to the showcase were spent in the classroom working on all aspects of theater craft, from scene study to set building, with workshops in dance, auditions and voice from Los Angeles-based professionals, while afternoons were spent in production for the showcase.
High school-level Conservatory Intensive students were featured in “The Bully Plays,” directed by theater veterans Tony and Tanna Kienitz. Conservatory Presents, directed by Class of 2015 alums Zoë Woehrmann and Madi Lang-Ree, produced two productions: “Daisy Pulls it Off” (Lang-Ree) and “Race to the Saturn Exhibit” (Woehrmann). Lang-Ree and Woehrmann are both graduates of the Harker Conservatory’s certificate program and went on to complete degrees in the arts. Lang-Ree graduated magna cum laude from Chapman University with a B.A. in theater, with departmental honors, and minor in integrated educational studies. She begins work at The Goodman Theater in Chicago this August. Woehrmann recently graduated from New York University with a B.F.A. in drama from the Tisch School of the Arts. Recent Harker graduates Emmy Huchley, Neha Premkumar and Ellie Lang-Ree – also Harker Conservatory graduates – served as production assistants, aiding in the classroom in rehearsals and with design execution.
Laura Lang-Ree, Harker’s K-12 director of performing arts, founded S@tC last year and serves as its artistic director. The program was started following the closing of the California Theatre Center, one of Lang-Ree’s favorite local summer theater offerings. “Our three weeks was such a joy and I loved watching our students grow,” she said. “Being able to work alongside such talented graduates is a teacher’s dream. I’m so proud of everyone involved!”
On Friday night, this year’s Summer @ the Conservatory program completed its three-week camp with a showcase featuring three shows brimming with talent from students, alumni and faculty. The days leading up to the showcase were spent in the classroom working on all aspects of theater craft, from scene study to set building, with workshops in dance, auditions and voice from Los Angeles-based professionals, while afternoons were spent in production for the showcase.
High school-level Conservatory Intensive students were featured in “The Bully Plays,” directed by theater veterans Tony and Tanna Kienitz. Conservatory Presents, directed by Class of 2015 alums Zoë Woehrmann and Madi Lang-Ree, produced two productions: “Daisy Pulls it Off” (Lang-Ree) and “Race to the Saturn Exhibit” (Woehrmann). Lang-Ree and Woehrmann are both graduates of the Harker Conservatory’s certificate program and went on to complete degrees in the arts. Lang-Ree graduated magna cum laude from Chapman University with a B.A. in theater, with departmental honors, and minor in integrated educational studies. She begins work at The Goodman Theater in Chicago this August. Woehrmann recently graduated from New York University with a B.F.A. in drama from the Tisch School of the Arts. Recent Harker graduates Emmy Huchley, Neha Premkumar and Ellie Lang-Ree – also Harker Conservatory graduates – served as production assistants, aiding in the classroom in rehearsals and with design execution.
Laura Lang-Ree, Harker’s K-12 director of performing arts, founded S@tC last year and serves as its artistic director. The program was started following the closing of the California Theatre Center, one of Lang-Ree’s favorite local summer theater offerings. “Our three weeks was such a joy and I loved watching our students grow,” she said. “Being able to work alongside such talented graduates is a teacher’s dream. I’m so proud of everyone involved!”
On Friday night, this year’s Summer @ the Conservatory program completed its three-week camp with a showcase featuring three shows brimming with talent from students, alumni and faculty. The days leading up to the showcase were spent in the classroom working on all aspects of theater craft, from scene study to set building, with workshops in dance, auditions and voice from Los Angeles-based professionals, while afternoons were spent in production for the showcase.
High school-level Conservatory Intensive students were featured in “The Bully Plays,” directed by theater veterans Tony and Tanna Kienitz. Conservatory Presents, directed by Class of 2015 alums Zoë Woehrmann and Madi Lang-Ree, produced two productions: “Daisy Pulls it Off” (Lang-Ree) and “Race to the Saturn Exhibit” (Woehrmann). Lang-Ree and Woehrmann are both graduates of the Harker Conservatory’s certificate program and went on to complete degrees in the arts. Lang-Ree graduated magna cum laude from Chapman University with a B.A. in theater, with departmental honors, and minor in integrated educational studies. She begins work at The Goodman Theater in Chicago this August. Woehrmann recently graduated from New York University with a B.F.A. in drama from the Tisch School of the Arts. Recent Harker graduates Emmy Huchley, Neha Premkumar and Ellie Lang-Ree – also Harker Conservatory graduates – served as production assistants, aiding in the classroom in rehearsals and with design execution.
Laura Lang-Ree, Harker’s K-12 director of performing arts, founded S@tC last year and serves as its artistic director. The program was started following the closing of the California Theatre Center, one of Lang-Ree’s favorite local summer theater offerings. “Our three weeks was such a joy and I loved watching our students grow,” she said. “Being able to work alongside such talented graduates is a teacher’s dream. I’m so proud of everyone involved!”
Just before spring break, the Harker Orchestra traveled to Los Angeles to see a performance by the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the world famous Walt Disney Concert Hall and attend workshops by Christopher Russell, conductor for Azusa Pacific University’s Symphony Orchestra, and Glenn Price, director of performing and visual arts at Caltech. They also made a special visit to Disneyland to take part in a Disney Performing Arts Soundtrack Session, in which they sight-read and recorded a portion of the soundtrack to a Disney film under the guidance of industry professionals, who gave them feedback on their work. Following the workshop with Russell, the orchestra gave a special live performance at the Universal Studios 5 Towers Stage.
This year’s upper school spring musical, “Urinetown,” wowed audiences this past weekend at the Patil Theater with its timely satirical tale of political unrest. The cast, who this summer will be the fourth in Harker history to travel to Scotland to appear at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, were fantastic in their roles as the citizens, businesspeople and politicians caught up in the drama of a town in the clutches of a ruthless megacorporation.
The upper school received a visit today from the Langston Hughes Project, a fusion of music, literature and history led by Ron McCurdy, a professor of music at the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music.
McCurdy first gave a morning lecture on Langston Hughes and the many artists of the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s. Later, the accomplished trumpeter was joined by drummer Mike Mitchell, bassist Giulio Cetto and pianist (and 2001 Harker middle school graduate) Yuma Sung at a special assembly at the Athletic Center, where McCurdy gave a powerful performance of Hughes’ poetic suite “Ask Your Mama,” reciting and singing Hughes’ lines as images and film reels of figures and events of African-American history were displayed behind the group.
Members of the upper school’s Jazz Band later attended a special master class given by McCurdy, where they performed Cannonball Adderley’s “Work Song” and received his feedback. McCurdy advised students to use their sheet music as a roadmap and avoid scanning it too much as they played. He also told them to learn the history behind the pieces they learn: “If you understand the history of why you’re doing what you’re doing, it’ll make a whole lot more sense to you.”
McCurdy also worked with the Downbeat show choir, which had been learning Nina Simone’s version of the 1960s show tune “Feeling Good.” After hearing their rendition, McCurdy coached the singers supporting the soloists to do more than simply sing the notes in their part. “Sing like you mean it,” he said, referring to the optimism in Simone’s performance. “I’ve got to hear that joy, that optimism.”
Four upper school students were recently selected to be members of California All-State Honor Ensembles, and will perform at next week’s California All-State Music Education Conference, Feb. 14-17 in Fresno. Clarinetist Allison Yen, grade 11, and string bassist Anika Fuloria, grade 10, will both perform with Symphonic Band. Junior Kai-Ming Ang will play French horn for the Concert Band and cellist Rachel Broweleit, also a junior, will perform with the Symphony Orchestra. All four students are members of the upper school’s Harker School Orchestra, directed by Dave Hart.
Senior Kelsey Wu was recently selected to be a part of Jazz in the Neighborhood’s Emerging Artists Program, which connects young Bay Area jazz talents with mentorship and performance opportunities with professional musicians. Wu, who performs with The Harker School Jazz Band and the show choir Downbeat, earned a spot in the program after a rigorous selection process that required applicants to submit videos of their performances or schedule live auditions. Those selected for the program are expected to have a five-song repertoire they can perform from memory, along with the ability to improvise on those songs as well as several jazz standards. Wu’s first performance as part of the Emerging Artists Program will be with the Dahveed Behroozi Trio at the California Jazz Conservatory on Feb. 6. at 7:30 p.m.
Founded in 2013, Jazz in the Neighborhood is a Bay Area-based organization that presents performances by local professional jazz artists and supports working musicians by arranging fair compensation for their work.
On Dec. 17, the Great Composers Competition awarded Daniel Wu, grade 9, a second prize for Best Beethoven Performance in age group IV (ages 14-16). The competition – one of many organized around the works of legendary composers such as Beethoven, Schubert and Mendelssohn – invites individual instrumentalists and singers, as well as ensembles, to submit their renditions of the composers’ works. The competitions are structured so that the winners can be announced on each composer’s birthday. Congratulations to Daniel, and belated happy 248th birthday to Beethoven himself!