SHS Students to Travel to Europe in February

In just a few weeks almost 200 SHS students will have the chance to travel to Europe as part of a French Language Exchange, an orchestra and chorus trip to Italy and a wind ensemble trip to Spain.

Sylvie Corten, Chair of the World Languages Department at SHS, will be leading her eleventh trip to France, where sixteen SHS students will spend two weeks with host families in Provence, sightsee and attend school at the Lycee Duby. School Nurse Karen Steefel will accompany Madame Corten and the students as a trip chaperone.

From February 11 to 25 students will attend Lycee Duby in Luynes, near Aix-en-Provence. Families who live in varied local villages and towns near the school, will host them. The itinerary includes excursions to Arles, Avignon, Marseille, Aix-en-Provence and the Cote d'Azur where students will attend a carnival in Nice and visit Eze and Monaco.

This trip is offered to 10th-12th graders, who were interviewed and recommended by their teachers and deans and meet the required level of proficiency in French. This past fall, a group of students from Lycee Duby visited Scarsdale and were hosted by the families of the students who will now go to France.

From February 16 -24, the SHS Orchestra and Chorus will travel to Italy and put on performances in Palermo and Rome, Italy. They will perform three times in solo concerts and have master classes and combined rehearsals with the conductors and students from the conservatory and concert hall in Italy.

While the orchestra and chorus have toured Italy in the past, this tour is unique in the exact locations and performance sites and venues. In the past ten years, groups from Scarsdale have performed in Italy, Austria, Germany, Argentina, Russia, Estonia, England, the Czech Republic, Canada, France, and China.

A third trip will take 60 students from the SHS wind ensemble to Barcelona and the Canary Islands in Spain from February 17-24. The tour begins in the Barcelona region of the country, and ends with a band festival in the Grand Canaria. For three days, students will be participating in a music festival in Gran Canaria. While on tour they will perform a repertoire by American composers as well as a Spanish style piece with their local peers. For these shared concerts, each director will conduct each other's ensemble as well.

According to Craig Sherman , District Coordinator of Performing Arts, “Travel is an education, and experiencing the cultures and learning the history of the locations is part of our goal for these tours. Destinations are chosen for their musical and artistic significance, and therefore our sightseeing includes the wonderful historical gems of these beautiful cities. And most importantly, we include musical encounters with local maestros and conductors, as well as local ensembles. It is our focus to perform alongside peers from our host locations. This interaction is an incredibly valuable aspect of the experience. It confirms that music is indeed the universal language.”