Groton musicians heat up during winter term

Chilling winter weather did not stop the music at Groton this January and February.

Beginning with a student piano recital on January 11, more than eighty Groton musicians performed in six student recitals in Gammons. In these performances, students who take private music lessons showed their progress and shared music they had studied with their peers, teachers, families, and supporters.

Seven Groton musicians won spots through competitive auditions and performed at Mechanics Hall in Worcester on January 13: Brenda Li ’25 and Sade Pickering ’26, voice; Samuel Lu ’27, violin; Olivia Ding ’26, viola; Brittany Deng ’24, cello; Amanda Chang ’26, flute; and Alexander Newman ’25, clarinet. Four of those students auditioned and earned the opportunity to perform at Boston’s Symphony Hall on March 23 as part of the Massachusetts Music Educators All-State Festival. At this event, Sade will sing with the chorus, Alexander will play in the concert band, and Brittany and Olivia will play in the orchestra.

A snowstorm prevented Select Chamber musicians from giving their concert at St. Paul’s Brookline in Boston, but their audience showed up to support them in Gammons that day, where they gave the concert despite the storm. The program featured the first movement of Dvořák’s American Quartet performed by Eric Ge ’24, Georgia Martin ’24, Olivia Ding ’26, and Brittany Deng ’24. The trio of Max Fan ’25, Alexander Newman ’25, and Brittany Deng ’24 played the first movement of the Brahms Clarinet Trio in A minor. A quintet of Amanda Chang ’26, Matthew Sennelius ’25, Will Klick ’25, Arianna Werkun ’24, Ven Sampas ’26, and William Laws ’25 gave a rousing performance of the “Italian Dance” from Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake Suite. James Ebert ’25 (trombone) and Evan Khym ’24 (French horn) added brass notes when they performed a challenging arrangement of the folk song “Black is the Color of My True Love’s Hair.” Gammons was packed and everyone seemed to have a grand time.

It was a little early, but Open Mic Heads—Ebunoluwa Lawore ’24, Afrika Gaye ’24, and Luisa Garciarramos Petricioli ’24—followed up on their successful Christmas open mic from December when they hosted a Valentine’s themed open mic in Gammons on February 3. 

On February 4, Soul Sauce, the Groton School Jazz Ensemble, and Riverside—the Groton School jazz combo under the direction of Kenji Kikuchi, Groton’s director of Jazz Ensembles—performed for an audience of friends, family, and passersby at the House of Blues Boston. Grace Janusz ’24 revved up the crowd with her solos on “Moanin’” by Charles Mingus. Ebunoluwa Lawore ’24 brought the house down with her expert performance of “’Swonderful” by George Gershwin. Sara Agrawal ’25 impressed everyone when she played bass and sang the Norah Jones hit “Don’t Know Why.” Tommy Zhang ’24 showed his tenor saxophone virtuosity many times, including in Bob Mintzer’s “Truth.” Luisa Garciarramos Petricioli ’24 took everyone back to the 1980s with great guitar work on Kenji’s arrangement of Mike Stern’s “After All.” By the end of the show, everyone in the band was improvising and everyone in the audience was dancing to Earth, Wind, and Fire’s “September.”

On February 6, Select Chamber performed their own version of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake Suite for orchestra in ten movements adapted for chamber ensembles, including seven movements arranged by Alexander Newman ’25. Ensembles included the full group of seventeen players, string quartet with percussion, clarinet quintet with percussion, violin solo with piano and double bass, quintet of flute, two violins, viola and double bass with percussion, trio of clarinet, flute, and piano with percussion, and piano four-hands. The music was brought to life through visual art produced by students from Groton visual arts classes taught by Jennifer Ho, Kristen Donovan, and Blake Fitch-Dion. There were no dancers in Gammons, but the work of Groton artists provided visual interest, and, at times, motion through animation in the art slideshows. Max Fan ’25 and Sarah Ku ’26 played a rousing version of Claude Debussy’s piano four-hand adaption of Tchaikovsky’s “Russian Dance.”

The student music group ALAS (clarinetist Alexander Newman ’25, violist Liv Ding ’26, flutist Amanda Chang ’26, and pianist Sarah Ku ’26) produced a concert devoted to the work of female composers on February 15. They invited several of their peers, including Groton Chamber Orchestra Concertmaster Eric Ge ’24 and Associate Concertmaster Georgia Martin ’24, to play a violin duet by the Polish composer Grażyna Bacewicz. Highlights included the world premiere of “Sunflare” by Rain Hou, a piece written for Alexander, Liv, and Sarah. Head of the Music Department, Mary Ann Lanier, added her rendition of Cathy Berberian’s “Stripsody” for solo voice. The program closed with a powerful performance of the first movement of Rebecca Clarke’s Sonata for Viola and Piano, featuring Liv with guest accompanist Jenny Tang.

Students who performed their afternoon activities in music this term gave a recital to close out the term on February 27. This group later completed their FSA activities with a trip to the Residences at Rivercourt, where they met with and performed for the residents.