{"id":922,"date":"2019-05-22T11:18:00","date_gmt":"2019-05-22T19:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fnsreporting.com\/blog\/?p=922"},"modified":"2020-04-07T13:05:21","modified_gmt":"2020-04-07T21:05:21","slug":"inaugural-life-in-the-arts-alumni-awards-presented-to-professional-actor-and-operatic-singer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fnsreporting.com\/blog\/2019\/05\/22\/inaugural-life-in-the-arts-alumni-awards-presented-to-professional-actor-and-operatic-singer\/","title":{"rendered":"Inaugural Life in the Arts alumni awards presented to professional actor and operatic singer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This article first published at Harker News Online on May 22, 2019<\/a><\/em>

By William Cracraft

Two of Harker\u2019s performing arts alumni were named inaugural awardees of Harker\u2019s Life in the Arts awards on Friday at the annual Senior Showcase, the celebration of those graduating with a Conservatory certificate along with their diploma. Gabrielle DeMers \u201903 and D.J. Blickenstaff \u201909 were honored for their commitment to their careers as performers as a group of family, friends, former teachers and administrators looked on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DeMers was in the second high school graduating class at Harker and was part of the effort to create the Harker Conservatory. She had major roles in \u201cLittle Shop of Horrors\u201d in 2001 and \u201cA Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream\u201d in 2002, and she remains the only Conservatory graduate to major in both vocal music and theater.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DeMers holds a Bachelor of Music from the University of Southern California\u2019s Thornton School of Music and a Master of Music in opera performance from the University of Maryland, College Park. As a member of the Maryland Opera Studio, she sang the title role of Sandrina in Mozart\u2019s \u201cLa Finta Giardiniera\u201d and Tatyana in Tchaikovsky\u2019s \u201cEugene Onegin.\u201d Read her full biography here. <\/a> Watch her acceptance of the award here.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

She had a few words of advice for those interested in a career in the arts. \u201cI was flashing back to my S<\/em>enior Showcase and if I could give myself advice at that age, the first thing would be to dream big,\u201d said DeMers, \u201cbecause it has to start with a  vision, you have to envision what you want to do. The road to it may be full of twists and turns, and take you in an unexpected direction, but you have to envision it first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe second thing I would have told myself is, growth comes through failure. You will receive a lot of rejection and you will make some mistakes, but the most growth I ever experienced as an artist is by trying things that were huge, coming up a little short, then getting into the practice room and figuring out how to get better next time,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blickenstaff shone in Harker productions of \u201cUrinetown: The Musical\u201d (Lockstock) in 2007, \u201cAnnie Get Your Gun\u201d (Frank Butler) in 2008 and \u201cThe Music Man\u201d (Harold Hill) in 2009. After graduating from Harker with a certificate from the Conservatory along with his diploma, he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from  the University of Southern California and has appeared in a number of shows, including a reoccurring role in Netflix\u2019 \u201cDear White People.\u201d Read his full biography here.<\/a> Watch him accepting the award here.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

His advice for those interested in a career in the arts? \u201cTrust yourself,\u201d Blickenstaff said, \u201cnot just believe in yourself, but trust yourself and go out there and pursue it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And he added a few kind words for those who helped launch him. \u201cHarker really truly is one of the driving forces behind me pursuing a life in the arts,\u201d Blickenstaff said. \u201cI would be nowhere in the arts without Harker and the amazing Harker family and the Harker faculty.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Life in the Arts awardees are those alumni who have the character, talent, drive and determination to pursue their passion as their livelihood. Inductees come from the stage, screen, classroom, backstage and rehearsal halls. They are passionate about their art and create at the highest level within their domain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLife in the Arts inductees are not necessarily \u2018stars\u2019 in the performing arts like we think of on stage or screen,\u201d said Lang-Ree. \u201cWe may come to recognize their names, and we may never see their names in lights, but they are living out their own dreams and that is what we honor.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A permanent location to display annual winners is currently in progress and will be unveiled at next year\u2019s presentation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article first published at Harker News Online on May 22, 2019 By William Cracraft Two of Harker\u2019s performing arts alumni were named inaugural awardees of Harker\u2019s Life in the Arts awards on Friday at the annual Senior Showcase, the celebration of those graduating with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[193],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education-and-schools"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fnsreporting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fnsreporting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fnsreporting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fnsreporting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fnsreporting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=922"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.fnsreporting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/922\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":924,"href":"https:\/\/www.fnsreporting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/922\/revisions\/924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fnsreporting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fnsreporting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fnsreporting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}