91̽��

On Saturday, February 10, 91̽�� jazz musicians took part in the 50th Annual Berklee College of Music High School Jazz Festival at the Hynes Auditorium in Boston. The event is the country’s largest high school jazz festival with over 225 student groups, made up of 3,000 students from 13 states, participating in the day’s activities. The competition included high school ensembles from every corner of the map from California to Washington, D.C., and New England to Puerto Rico. The groups’ performances were judged by a panel of Berklee faculty. Competing in the medium- to large-sized high school combo category, 91̽��’s senior combo placed third and was awarded scholarship support for two students to attend Berklee College five-week summer music program. Coalter Palmer (I) also received a judge’s award for outstanding musician of his combo.

91̽��’s winners (pictured here from left to right) are John Minicus (I), drums; Will Goldberg (I), cello; Bob Sinicrope, director; Coalter Palmer (I), soprano sax; Alex Chen (I), tenor sax; Jonah Garnick (I), guitar; Vijay Karle (I), bass; Danny Little (I), baritone sax; Cameron Shockley-Okeke (I), piano; Jane Yang (I), piano, alto sax; and Jesse Williams, director.

Watch the group rehearse in Kellner’s jazz room.

91̽��’s fall performing arts schedule features original comedy sketches, a new Class IV musical tradition and Shakespeare’s most famous star-crossed lovers.

Inspired by the Ziegfeld Follies and other revue shows, the Class IV play is a collection of songs, poetry, short scenes and music, specifically tailored for the Class IV actors. The material explores the journey from birth to death and the production is titled: The Class IV Follies: The Tree of Life. There are songs from modern musicals and the classics; scenes from plays, sketch comedies and films; and poetry ranging from Shakespeare to Maya Angelou. The Class IV play is a long-standing performing arts tradition involving the entire class.

“It promises to be a fun, exciting, and moving evening featuring our amazing Class IV actors,” says Eleza Moyer, performing arts faculty member. “We hope to make Follies a Class IV play tradition. Also fun to note: many upperclassmen are volunteering their time in roles such as assistant music director, assistant director, stage manager and featured choreographer.”

The fall play is a modern take on Romeo and Juliet, featuring 11 student actors with Clara Wolff (II) as Juliet and Devon Whalen (III) as Romeo. The setting is an abandoned warehouse in an unnamed city where a group of youths regularly hang out. They decide to put on the Shakespeare tragedy. Performing arts faculty member Shane Fuller says the production uses the stage in a unique way—an alley theatre. Students are playing multiple characters, mixing up gender and incorporating some dance and movement pieces.

And the final production of the fall is the 1212 Play, which brings a taste of Saturday Night Live to Wigg Hall. Wicked Sketchyis an original production made up of sketches written and performed by students. In this production, there are 13 actors, three of whom are Wicked Sketchy veterans. Performing Arts Chair Peter Parisi said this is the fourth production of Wicked Sketchy and there will be at least one returning character from previous performances.

Class IV Follies begins Thursday, November 2, and Friday, November 3, at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday, November 4, at 7 p.m.

Romeo and Juliet begins Thursday, November 16, and Friday, November 17, at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday, November 18 at 7 p.m.

Wicked Sketchy begins Thursday, November 30, and Friday, December 1 at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday, December 2 at 7 p.m.

Adrian Anantawan has toured the world as a violin soloist and performed on some of the most prominent stages, but this year marks the beginning of a different kind of adventure: being a house parent to the boys of Forbes House.

“Sitting down at a dinner table and hearing young men talk about things that are really intellectual, and at the same time really having fun, is wonderful,” says Adrian, 91̽��’s new music department chair. “Getting to know them is a highlight.”

Adrian takes the baton from Don Dregalla, who retired after more than three decades of teaching music at 91̽��. Adrian is teaching the Middle School strings and winds, Upper School orchestra, Chamber Orchestra and general music in the Upper School.

Born in Canada, Adrian has been playing the violin since he was around 10, and he performed professionally for the first time at 15. He has performed at the White House, in the opening ceremonies of the Olympics in both Athens and Vancouver, and at the United Nations. Audience members have included Pope John Paul II and the Dalai Lama.

He received his undergraduate degree from the Curtis Institute of Music and graduate degrees from Yale University and the Harvard School of Education. His first teaching job was at the Conservatory Lab Charter School, a K-8 program in Boston. When Don announced his plans to retire at the end of the 2016-2017 school year, Adrian jumped at the opportunity.

“Positions like this are hard to find in music education, because people love working at schools like 91̽��. These positions rarely open up,” he says. “It was very happenstance.”

Adrian credits mentor Indu Singh, 91̽��’s dean of teaching and learning, with helping him to acclimate to life at 91̽��. The School has been accommodating of the performance schedule that he has had in place for more than a year, so he was able to go on a tour through Asia early this fall.

He describes his teaching style as based in modeling skills, not just in the technical aspects of music theory or performance: “One of the big things in music is modeling what listening looks like, how it feels, and what it means to have a dialogue. I’m much more interested in finding out where their interests might lie, versus prescribing things for them to think about. I want to give them the tools to express themselves in more forceful, meaningful ways.”

Adrian hopes to eventually increase student performers’ repertoire choice and explore different genres of music in classes, but noted that there is a strong foundation in place at 91̽��.

“I think it’s important for the students to have a say in the work that they’re presenting to people,” he says. “I do think we’re going to have at least a year where we’re just doing minor tweaks and sustaining a culture that has been the legacy for Don Dregalla for the last 35 years.”

He also plans to continue his advocacy for music education for people with physical, cognitive and emotional disabilities, both at 91̽�� and beyond. “Music should be a point in which those differences are actually strengths, not weaknesses,” he says.

Adrian, who was born without a right hand, started playing the violin at his parents’ encouragement.

“I think we started with the idea of me playing the recorder, but I didn’t have enough fingers. So, we thought maybe I could study voice? But I didn’t have a great voice,” Adrian says. “Trumpet? It’s too loud. I think we chose violin not because it was necessarily the most practical instrument to adapt to one hand, but my dad loved it and played a bit when he was younger. And I just loved the sound. The adaptations came afterward.”

Musicians with physical disabilities, especially when they’re just starting out, learn that finding adaptive instruments can be prohibitively expensive, but Adrian believes that the music world can be more inclusive. Increasing representation of different abilities in music can help.

‘Sometimes, we need to look for precedent,” he says. “And that requires research, but it also requires people who are in this field with physical disabilities and are producing music, to really get out there and demonstrate that journey for others.”

When George Luo (I) wrote his first screenplay at the end of his freshman year at 91̽��, he rounded up about 20 people who said they’d be interested in helping him make the film. Over that summer, interest fizzled, and George never made the movie, which is OK, he jokes, because, “It was probably the worst screenplay of all time.”

A few more attempts failed; it was hard to manage the process alone. So, during sophomore year, George and some friends founded the Hollywood Filmmaking Club, which has lent structure to film projects, he says.

Last year, the club, which is made up of actors and students interested in directing and writing, worked together to make George’s film, “Under the Wound,” which was accepted in several film festivals. Over that Columbus Day weekend, six members of the club went to New York City, where the 20-minute-long drama was an official selection of the All American High School Film Festival, an event that honors the best of high-school films from all over the country.

“It’s a really big festival,” says performing arts faculty member Shane Fuller, who advises the club. “It was really cool to see the students taking on the project as their own and doing all the work. They did all the scheduling, filming, casting, lighting and editing. The film itself turned out really nice. The attention to detail is really great.”

“Under the Wound” explores the damage that unfurls from a single lie. George wrote and directed it. He was inspired by a critically acclaimed Danish film called “The Hunt.”

After early missteps in making movies, George felt motivated to learn everything he could in film classes. Shane’s advanced filmmaking class created a film called “Abstraction,” which was accepted into several festivals; George, Conor Greene (I) and Joey Leung ’17 won the best cinematography award at the Hotchkiss Film Festival in the spring for “Abstraction.”

George has always loved watching movies, but didn’t grasp the filmmaking process until his second day at 91̽��, when he saw a film crew shooting on campus. “I don’t remember if they were making a TV show, a commercial or a film, but they were out in front of Forbes. And I saw the giant camera, and those lights and thought, that’s what I want to do,” he says.

Taking what he learned from film classes, studying lighting and sound tips on the internet, George’s first film at 91̽�� was a short horror movie. For “Under the Wound,” he wanted to create something longer, which was possible because every member of the club got involved.

“They put a lot of time in and sacrificed several weekends for a project I started, which is incredible,” George says. Because the club was fully involved, George says he was able to focus on small details, a focus that his favorite directors, Stanley Kubrick and Christopher Nolan, are known for. George’s goal is to continue making movies with social messages, and to be conscious of improving gender and racial diversity in film.

The All American High School Film Festival is an opportunity to hear from established filmmakers, visit a college fair with a focus on film programs, and absorb the work of other student artists.

“I know that there are films that are better than mine, and I want to watch them,” George says. “I know that my next project has to be better than the previous one. That’s the standard I’ve set for myself. And I think for people our age, watching great films that are created by young people is excellent motivation.”