7/30/25 - Moonlight Sonata

Before listening to the piece, I think it will be very calming. I know it was composed by Beethoven, a composer I am familiar with. I also recognize the title but I can't think of what the actual song sounds like.

While listening, I definitely recognize the piece. I expected it to be calming, but it seems to be very dramatic. I notice the piano player in the video shown is using strong dynamics on certain notes. It is a very beautiful piece and I'm excited to hear it played as an ensemble.

Practical harpist final project 2025

Bio and headshot (2025)

Headshot (2023)

BIO (2023)

Maya Aquino is a rising junior at Drew Charter School. She is a member of the Urban Youth Harp Ensemble and has been playing the harp for 5 years. She has played the harp in many school concerts including a Latin American Immersive Experience and a TedX presentation. Her favorite piece to play is Habanera Gris, an ensemble song she played with her 8th grade class in a Christmas concert. She has participated in 2 solo and ensemble performance evaluations, receiving an excellent score on both. Maya is an avid volleyball player and she was a starting player on the varsity team in her freshman and sophomore years. She enjoys painting with watercolor and sketching in pencil and charcoal. Maya has experience playing the piano and is a self taught guitarist, but mainly focuses on harp. She plans on going to college in the Pacific Northwest and studying international exchanges.

9TH grade (2022-23)

Above are two haiku pieces that we played as an ensemble. In the piece, "The Sparrows Are Playing Hide and Seek Among the Tea Flowers," I think we played very well. We arranged the piece as to where everyone has a lot of freedom playing. A challenge we had was agreeing on how to format the boxes in a way that sounds good and feels comfortable to play. One thing I like about this piece is how much freedom I have playing the piece. I get to decide which boxes to play when I want. I liked the soundboard taps and improvising on the high strings. Overall, I think our class preformed and organized this piece very well.

I loved playing the piece, "A Stray Cat Asleep On The Roof In The Spring Rain." My favorite technique use in that piece was the tuning key slide. I think that represented a cat meowing very well. I think our class perfectly reflacted the haiku. We played very well and we used the given dynamics to express the emotion and storyline of the song.

Business Card (2023)

Solo Preformance Video (2023)

The video shown above is a solo piece called "Habanera Gris." I originally learned this song as an ensemble with another part to accompany this one. This is my favorite piece to play for gigs and as an ensemble.

10Th grade (2023-24)

Wedding Project - 2/1/24

For this project, we were assigned to create two music menus for wedding participants to choose from. I worked with Taylor Harper, Marielle O'Neill, and Lauren Howard, beginning on August 21. We could choose from many classic wedding pieces such as Canon in D, Can't Help Falling in Love, and Bridal March. We were also prompted to choose some other songs that were not provided, so my group decided to formulate a Disney themed wedding menu. We included songs such as Can You Feel The Love Tonight, At Last I See The Light, and Ma Belle Evangeline. I really liked the large selection of music we were given and the creative freedom we were granted by being able to choose the songs we would play. We took time to meet with the theater class and have a wedding consultation with our bride and groom. Although we were given many time extensions on this project, I should've taken more time to practice my piece, because I was unprepared when the wedding day came. I think there was some miscommunication between the harp class and the theater class, because some cues were unclear and it was difficult to know when we were supposed to play. Overall it was a very fun and interactive project and I enjoyed getting to work with the other classes.