Music Around the World hosts mini-concert to encourage self-expression

William+Rainow+%2810%29%2C+Thomas+Rainow+%2810%29+and+Joshua+Valluru+%2810%29+play+a+Brazilian+song+together+across+their+instruments.+The+Music+Around+the+World+showcase+was+held+in+English+teacher+Christopher+Hurshmans+room+on+April+24.

Eric Fang

William Rainow (10), Thomas Rainow (10) and Joshua Valluru (10) play a Brazilian song together across their instruments. The Music Around the World showcase was held in English teacher Christopher Hurshman’s room on April 24.

by Karina Chen, Reporter

Music Around the World (MAW) hosted a concert featuring unique music styles from student performers on April 24.

Students performed pieces of music outside the mainstream, and music genres ranging from cultural music to video game music were encouraged. Club leaders Divija Bhimaraju (12) and Millie Lin (12) announced the call for performers at a school meeting on March 12.

“Our multicultural concert is intended to present a style of music that students usually wouldn’t see on the Harker campus,” Millie said. “For example, if someone has a totally weird interest or talent like video game music or super good at harp playing, this is where they can showcase their music.”

By allowing performers to give a short introduction about their piece, Music Around the World hopes to facilitate the exposure of music outside the norm and cultures to the student body.

“The goal of Music Around the World is basically to present awareness and to spread knowledge about music around the world in different time periods and different cultures,” Divija said. “I think often times in these normal shows that [Harker] hosts, people feel obliged to do mainstream music, and this is an avenue they have to really showcase a different side of their music training.”

The performances, which took place during long lunch, allowed students to express themselves through music and showcase their talents. Performances included cello, guitar, K-pop, classical Indian dancing and piano.

“[I decided to do the concert] partly because of artistic expression, and I also just wanted to promote BTS,” performer Audrey Liu (9) said. “I just like being able to perform, because performing is just something that’s really enjoyable for me.”

This piece was originally published in the pages of the Winged Post on May 7, 2018.