The student news site of The Harker School.

Harker Aquila

The student news site of The Harker School.

Harker Aquila

The student news site of The Harker School.

Harker Aquila

Bahar Sodeifi (11) and Kyle Li (11) play the saxophone during Jazz Bands performance at the Essentially Ellington Festival. Harker performed Manceta by Dizzy Gillespie. (Provided by Essentially Ellington Festival)

Jazz Band attends Essentially Ellington Festival in Orlando

by Disha Gupta March 9, 2024

Amidst rows and rows of passionate high-school musicians, all eyes turned to the Harker Jazz Band as they took center stage at the Essentially Ellington Festival held at the Phillips Center of Performing...

“Composition is a way of finding your artistic voice. For me, I would say, every day, when Im walking around, Im always hearing music in my head, I’m always hearing songs or melodies or something all the time, Dr. McCurdy said.

A musician’s message

by Sarah Mohammed and Alysa Suleiman March 15, 2021

At just five or six years old, a little boy would practice his harmonica, twirling around his mother’s tea party event to its lively tunes. In those moments, he knew he was destined to become someone...

American jazz pianist Taylor Eigsti speaks on the effects of the pandemic on musicians. “To really understand the production of what goes on to put a show on, it really is a deep dive, since we kind of have to do this stuff ourselves now,” Eigsti said. “We have to wear a lot of hats; we have to learn how to be a sound engineer [and] a lighting person.”

All jazzed up

by Emily Tan, Features Editor January 27, 2021

In a broadcast of his 2018 Harker Concert Series performance, jazz pianist and composer Taylor Eigsti slides his fingers into place on the piano on the Patil Theater stage after a brief pause. With an...

Juno Award winning jazz vocalist and pianist Laila Biali claps after performing one of her original works at the first Concert Series show last Friday night. In addition to her performance, Biali led workshops with jazz band, Downbeat and the upper school orchestra on Thursday and Friday.

“Got to Love” the music: Laila Biali jazzes up traditional styles in first performance of annual Concert Series

by Kathy Fang, Editor-in-Chief September 21, 2019

“One, two—one, two, three, four!” The deep notes of the bass and a catchy drum rhythm kick off an upbeat jazz song, led by a bright trumpet melody. After a few counts, jazz vocalist, pianist and...

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