On the eve of their trip to South Africa, the Milton Academy jazz students launched their upcoming two weeks of performances with a set at The Real Deal Jazz Club and Café in Cambridge for 175 people. Now they have returned to School—28 Milton Academy jazz students and 15 adults—at the close of Milton’s sixth South Africa tour. Their tour brought them to performances in six cities, including Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town. They visited with and played for South African students and adults at township music schools, high schools, at a university and at a jazz club. Highlights included one concert with the Siphithemba Choir at the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal and another as part of the Amy Biehl Township Jazz Festival in Cape Town. The group delivered $19,000 worth of music materials to needy township schools; the gifts came from 16 corporations who were solicited during preparations for the trip. Students also visited the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg; the infamous Robben Island, which was used primarily as a prison from the mid-1600s until 1997 when it became a museum; the Hector Peterson Museum in Soweto, named for one of the first students to be killed during the 1976 student uprising in the township; and two game reserves, Pilansberg and Robberg.
