Upper School Prize Speaking & Strings Ensemble Debut

Upper School students participated in the 94th Annual Prize Speaking Competition on March 16 in Danforth Chapel. In opening the assembly, Upper School English Teacher David Terrell commended the three finalists for their talent and for their courage to tackle public speaking, “something most humans fear more than death.” He also noted that an important purpose of Prize Speaking is to celebrate our facility for language.

This year, three finalists participated in the competition. DeAnna Pope ’12 presented an excerpt from “The Man Who Matched Our Mountains,” an article by Ed Mack Miller that originally appeared in the December 3, 1961, edition of The Denver Post.
Christopher Noda ’12 performed an original piece entitled “The Survivor,” and Ankita Kanakadandila ’14 shared two poems, “Apology to My Unborn,” and “Sometimes Silence is the Loudest Kind of Noise,” by Bassey Ikpi.

While the judges deliberated, the audience enjoyed the first public performance of the MICDS Strings Ensemble, who performed Mozart’s Symphony #12 (Allegro Movement), and the Finale of Haydn’s Symphony #16. The Strings Ensemble is directed by Scott Shaw. Student members are Max Bernstein ’15, John Li ’15, Christopher Goessling ’14, Zander Galluppi ’12, Rohit Srivastava ’15, Niema Foroughi ’17, Connie Chiteshi ’15 and Ben Gunning ’13. In addition, members of the State Qualifying Trombone Trio, John Dunagan ’13, Gyde Lund ’12 and Achint Rai ’15, performed “Men About Town.”

At the conclusion of the assembly, Ankita Kanakadandila was announced as the winner of the 2012 Prize Speaking competition. She will have her name inscribed on the Dartmouth Cup. Congratulations to all of the finalists!