His hands move delicately, dragging his bow across the strings of his cello. He looks as though he’s practiced this a million times. His bow against the strings fills the room with an overpowering melody. Back and forth, back and forth, over and over again, until his work of art is complete. He stands for a bow and is greeted with plenty of applause.

Harris has a serious passion for playing the cello.

“It really is just about playing. Creating sound that I enjoy,” Harris said.

Harris has been creating music for a large portion of his life, since the third grade. In that time, he has played in recitals and with orchestras at Northwest Junior High and West High. He enjoys playing with a group and as an individual, but says they are very different experiences.

“I feel like I matter more when I do it on my own, but when I do get to play with an orchestra that’s really fun because what you’re doing can seem more grand and the music more diverse and powerful,” Harris said.

Harris  puts in plenty of work to improve his abilities. In addition to  time spent playing at school, he practices four times a week for at least half an hour and goes to a weekly hour and a half lesson. His cello teacher, Christina Craig, is very familiar with the time and effort Harris puts into his craft.

“Jack as a cello player is very dedicated. He is smart and knows how to figure out the difficult things. He appreciates and values the hard work he puts into his music.” Craig said.

Even with all the effort he knew he’d have to put in, for Harris, the decision to play the cello was easy.

“I just think cello sounds better than the others and is more fun to play,” Harris said. “It has sort of a balanced tone and you can play really low and really high notes on it, so it has a big range too which I like.”

While he’s not playing the cello, he’s watching football or movies. He prefers watching the University of Iowa over NFL, but he still loves the 49ers. His other passion, movies, is another large hobby of his. His favorite movie is “Jaws” because it builds suspense and he can feel what the characters are feeling.

“[He] knows about all there is about any movie ever,” Craig said.