Shining light on a dark past
Ellen Bowker, 14, from left, Lily Desmond, 13, and Gianna Horak,14, practice “Graduation,” a piece composed by Gianna at the Waverly School in Pasadena. The piece was performed at the school’s graduation this month. Gianna is on a monthlong tour of China, where she was born, with the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus. (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)
Gianna warms up with the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus at the Ambassador Auditorium in Pasadena. She was born in China, and as a baby was left in the garden of a Chinese orphanage. (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)
Gianna, second from right, performs with the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus at the Ambassador Auditorium in Pasadena. A singer and pianist, she also composes music. (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)
Jan-Christopher Horak congratulates Gianna after a recent performance. Her parents will take Gianna to visit the orphanage in Tongling, China, where she was abandoned as an infant, after the choir’s two-week tour. (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)
Gianna dances in a Chinese dance class. (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)
Gianna kisses her mother, Mindy Schirn, goodbye before heading to a performance. (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)
The Horaks play a game at their Pasadena home. “I love my ‘now’ parents,” Gianna says. (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)
Friends asked Gianna if she planned to visit her birth parents in China. No, she said, because abandoning a child in China is illegal, so the arrival of an adopted daughter might endanger them. (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)
