Earlier this fall, I sent a get to know you form called “Curious Quirks” to our new teachers. Grace Pan responded that she was the keyboardist in a band called The Wrong Ones, inspired by 60's groups like The Doors and The Byrds. I stopped reading the other answers then and there. My first thought? Grace is so cool. My second? Who else is in a band...
Inspired, I put on The Byrds’ “Mr. Tambourine Man” and started discovering our team's talents. Montanna Riggs and Glo Hui were in a band called GloMonCho and had released three albums in high school. Alec DeCaprio scored a film he directed. Paloma Aisenberg had performed in over 20 musicals!
To showcase our team, I put together the first ever Curious Cardinals music video. Watch our teachers take the stage!
Montanna began playing cello when she was five. She became disengaged with orchestral music in high school, so she and Glo formed a cello-violin duo and played “Smooth Criminal” at an open mic night when they were in 3rd Form at Groton. They later brought in their friend Cho Nikoi on vocals. The trio would hang out and play music so often they finally formed GloMonCho!
Glo, who also plays viola, piano, drums, and guitar, found out she loved producing music when GloMonCho wanted to release their first album, OffWhite. Now at Columbia University, she's been remixing songs to make them bigger and more emotional. Montanna still plays cello at Stanford.
Check our Glo with her guitar and a photo from GloMonCho's photoshoot with writer Starling Irving. You can find the band's three albums on Spotify and iTunes!
Lana has always loved to sing. In high school, she began performing with The Pocket Jazz/Rock Ensemble! She left the band when she shipped off to New York City to attend Barnard College.
Lana poses in orange. The second picture is her on stage with The Pocket!
Paloma has performed (with many leading roles) in over 20 musicals. She placed in the Top 15 of BroadwayWorld’s Next on Stage Competition and recently starred in Marie Antoinette and HAL, a modern, multi-media interpretation of Shakespeare’s Henry IV, at Stanford.
Paloma performs as Amber in Hairspray and poses as Marie Antoinette! Below, Paloma is singing on the big screen.
Alec is a singer-songwriter. Last spring at Harvard, he wrote an album for a film he directed calledTraffic at the Hand Ferry. He has been playing guitar for over 10 years, and one music video he put on YouTube in middle school has nearly 200K views now. You may run into Alec in New York City where he regularly performs jazz guitar.
Check out stills from Traffic at the Hand Ferry and Alec with his guitar.
Megan started singing in choir over 10 years ago. Before starting at Stanford, Megan performed at coffeehouses and sang the National Anthem at sports games in her hometown of Houston, TX.
Megan, the singer and pianist, next to Megan, the model.
Inspired by 1960s bands like The Doors, The Byrds, and Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, Grace and her friends formed The Wrong Ones while at Harvard. Grace is the keyboardist and writes instrumentals for the band's originals.
The Wrong One's album cover (listen to their work on SoundCloud!) next to Grace in a dorm room. Below, the band performs "I Won't Be Your Fool".