Spring Globetrotting for Groton Musicians

Headmaster Temba Maqubela and the Groton School Chamber Music Tour greeted parents, alumni, and friends in Seoul, Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong in mid-March. Student musicians, led by Director of Instrumental Music Mary Ann Lanier, performed at each reception. 

Throughout Asia, the receptions welcomed newly admitted families as well—part of the new Groton Embrace Tour, which also reached out to families considering Groton in Chicago, New York, Raleigh (NC), and San Francisco.

 

While instrumentalists were playing, Groton’s singers were on tour, too. The Groton School Choir traveled to South Africa, where they visited Johannesburg, Cape Town, George, and Port Elizabeth and, under the guidance of Choral Director Dan Moriarty, performed alongside the South Cape Children’s Choir, the Loreto High School choir, and the Kensington Choral (as well as a special appearance at a celebration of the marriage of the Maqubelas’ son). Interspersed with performances were tours of Robben Island, Table Mountain, and Nelson Mandela’s house in Soweto, as well as a trip to a wildlife preserve and botanical garden. 

 

Not all the student travelers this spring were musicians: a Global Education Opportunity (GEO) took twelve students to France for language and cultural immersion. The trip included a home stay in a small town in the Loire Valley, where students attended classes at a local school, as well as visits to many of the iconic sites of Paris. The GEO to Paris alternates yearly with a Classics-focused trip to Italy. Planned for this summer are GEOs to China, Uganda, and Peru.