JANUARY 2006 (VOL. 12, NO. 4)
M O N T H L Y
inside
N E W S L E T T E R
F R O M
T H E
H A R K E R
S C H O O L
Winter Concert Officially Opens New Performance Venue
Schoolwide Outreach ....... 4, 5 First-ever Shanghai Teacher Exchange ............................ 7 New MS Tech Committee ... 10 LS Marin Headlands Trip ...... 8 All-League Athletes Named ....15 Robert Boucher, parent
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est. 1893 • K-12 college prep
online ■ Weekly updates on Campus Home pages (LS, MS and US) ■ Recent Performance Photos: Gr. 1; Gr. 2 & 3; Fall Concert; Winter Concert. ■ Harker News photos & more!
events Tickets Now On Sale!
Fairmont Hotel - San Jose Friday, March 3, 2006 Luncheon & Fashion Show 11 a.m. - $85 Dinner Gala with Fashion Show, Live Auction & Dancing 5:30 p.m. - $175
The Harker community was introduced to its newest performing arts venue on Dec. 8, when the instrumental ensembles from all three divisions gathered in the Blackford “cafetorium” to perform their winter concert, under the inspirational direction of Chris Florio. The refurbished space, complete with a brand-new sound system installed just days before the concert, sparkled with the sounds of classical and jazz music. The Bucknall Strings got things started with two pieces, the popular theme from “Masterpiece Theater” and the even more popular “Canon” by Pachelbel. The Gr. 6 Orchestra performed three pieces, ending on a fast-paced note with a “Can Can.” The Gr. 7 & 8 Orchestra played the exciting “Hatikvah,” before turning the stage over to the US Orchestra. In all, twenty-three LS and MS students demonstrated how much the instrumental program is blossoming on those campuses. The US Jazz Band, with singer Tara Chandra, Gr. 12, took the stage and wowed the crowd with four Big Band tunes, including a tribute to New Orleans with “Basin Street Blues.” The US Orchestra, with concertmistress Audrey Kwong, Gr. 11, played a three-movement suite of folk songs by Ralph Vaughan Williams, as well as the haunting “Our Town” by the great American composer
Aaron Copland. Percussion, deftly added by US faculty member Fred Triefenbach, was highlighted in the final number, a “Russian Sailor’s Dance.” In a rousing finale, the Gr. 7 & 8 Orchestra joined the US Orchestra for the theme from “Pirates of the Caribbean,” a piece so well-received that Florio had the group play it again as an encore!
Thank you to technicians Paul Vallerga and Brian Larsen for such great work with the new sound system. And many thanks to Florio for his impressive work with the instrumental ensembles this year. What a wonderful inauguration of Harker’s newest performance venue! Visit the Web site for photos and see the collage on the back page of this issue.
Harker JSA Stands Out at Recent State Conference The Harker chapter of the Junior State of America (JSA) made a huge impression at the JSA Fall State Conference held in Santa Clara in November with a delegation of 83 students, the most of any school. Harker was represented in myriad ways at the conference, with high-ranking elected officers at the regional and state levels, and a number of student speakers at the fall conference. Harker senior Amira Valliani, who serves as a senator in the Golden Gate Region (GGR) to which Harker belongs, said, “I have never seen so many Harker names on the agenda for a JSA conference. I was really proud of how Harker students were participating in both the planning and content of the events.”
As state-wide elected officers, Valliani and fellow Harker senior Tara Chandra, who is now Northern California (NorCal) speaker of the house, were directly responsible for organizing and planning a number of events at the fall state conference, including the “political fair.” The political fair invited a wide range of political organizations and activist groups to present their platforms at the JSA conference. Under the organization of Chandra and Valliani, 28 different political organizations participated in the event, the most ever. Valliani, who also serves as the director of activism for the GGR, organized multiple events to address Continued on pg. 14