Student musicians gather for first Interscholastic Chamber Music Festival

The Groton School Music Department welcomed colleagues from Phillips Andover to the Circle on January 12 for the first Interscholastic Chamber Music Festival. 

 

“I have been trying to put an event like this together since just before the pandemic,” said Groton Music Department Head Mary Ann Lanier, PhD. “When two of our students, Alexander Newman (’25) and Max Fan (’25), approached about having a chamber music festival this year, the time seemed right to try again.”

 

Each school brought three ensembles to the festival: a piano trio, string quartet, and flute, bassoon and piano quartet from Phillips Andover, and a string quartet, violin duo, and flute, clarinet and piano trio from Groton. The program featured a variety of chamber music from such composers as Brahms, Dvořák, Hayden, Mendelssohn, Mozart, and Schubert. 

 

“It’s great to be able to share the experience of being a classical musician in a prep school with other prep-school student musicians,” Dr. Lanier explained. “For each school there was also an element of wanting to give their all and do their best because they were performing in front of their peers from other schools. Mostly, it’s great to build new connections with students you can easily find common ground with but who also have a whole different set of experiences.”

 

Prior to the performance, students from both schools enjoyed coaching sessions with Groton School faculty members Timothy Terranella, Aaron Packard, and Susan Jensen.