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...

Organist Brian Ho responds to saxophonist Aaron Lingtons improvisation during a performance of Lingtons original tune Nostalgic. It really is like a musical conversation, Ho said. We feel each other out and take turns to listen to each other.

Aaron Lington organ quartet energizes stage with live jazz

by Jeremy Peng and Jessica Wang March 6, 2024

Before one note fades, the next bursts forth, each as unexpected as the last. The guitarist grins, his fingers dancing across the strings as the organist cushions their cutting richness with a flurry of...

How much do you really know about San Francisco and one of its famed neighborhoods?

San Fun-cisco trivia: Test your knowledge with 15 questions

by Jessica Wang and Claire Zhao April 22, 2023

SAN FRANCISCO — We’ve all heard of San Francisco and the Tenderloin. Perhaps you’ve talked about it amongst your peers, been there or even stayed there. But how much do you really know about the...

Shiven Balaji (9) plays the saxophone with Lab Band during the Evening of Jazz performances on April 14. The Grade 7-8 Jazz Band and Upper School Jazz Band also participated in the concert, with the groups playing a combined total of 15 pieces.

Seniors round off last band performances at annual Evening of Jazz concert

by Sally Zhu, A&E and Lifestyle Editor April 24, 2022

A powerful jazz melody erupts from the stage, notes flowing out of trumpets, vibrating through the strings of electric guitars and bouncing off of swinging drumsticks and into the audience’s ears. The...

Music Monday is a new installation featuring a different category of songs on a weekly basis.

Music Monday: Get into the autumn groove with Aquila

by Alena Suleiman, Reporter October 18, 2021

Music Monday features a different category of songs on a weekly basis. Each Monday, Harker Aquila will release seven songs, one song for each day of the week.  With the expectation of intermittent...

Student dancers extend one arm together while practicing part of their routine. The dancers started rehearsals on Wednesday.

Student choreographers begin Dance Production rehearsals

by Sally Zhu, A&E and Lifestyle Editor October 6, 2021

Dance Production rehearsals began this week for student-choreographed dances that will be performed in the “Blast from the Past” show in January of next year. Six dances, taught by 10 choreographers...

“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...

Senior violin soloist Hanoom Lee leads the orchestra in Pablo de Sarasates “Zigeunerweisen during the annual winter concert last Friday. The upper school orchestra was joined by the upper school jazz and lab bands, with all three groups performing pieces from their repertoires.

Upper school music groups celebrate end of semester with annual winter concert

by Sarah Mohammed and Saurav Tewari January 22, 2020

The upper school orchestra, jazz band and lab band performed in their annual winter concert on Friday in the Rothschild Performing Arts Center, commemorating their work this semester. The orchestra...

Award-winning composer and musician David Amram answers questions from the audience at last Fridays Speaker Series performance. Amram shared wisdom from his lifes work as a jazz and classical musician, telling anecdotes along the way.

Award-winning composer David Amram imparts wisdom, music at Speaker Series performance

by Kathy Fang and Jin Tuan November 12, 2019

Award-winning composer David Amram wrapped up his week's visit at the upper school as this year's artist in residence with his performance at this year’s Speaker Series event in the Patil Theater last...

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...

William Rainow (12) plays the bass. He joined the Jazz Factor last year.

The Jazz Factor shares their love of music

by Nicole Tian and Eric Fang August 28, 2019

Trills of assorted jazz music float through the pavement in front of the Glass House as six musicians tap their feet along to the rhythm. Before their performance at the San Jose Jazz Festival, the Jazz...

Jazz pianist Taylor Eigsti performs a solo in a piece at tonights show, which was the first performance of tonights Concert Series, as upper school music teacher Dave Hart and jazz saxophonist Dayna Stephens look on.

Concert Series returns after two years with jazz performance

by Kathy Fang, Managing Editor October 18, 2018

Members of the Harker community were invited to attend the first performance in this year's Harker Concert Series, which was hosted at 8 p.m. tonight in the Patil Theater and featured jazz pianist Taylor...

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