Mark Your Calendar for Quest Fest

Award-winning singer/songwriter Mary McBride visited Episcopal in January as the keynote speaker for the Quest for Peace Program.

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Award-winning singer/songwriter Mary McBride will return to Episcopal on March 17th for the Quest for Peace Program’s Quest Fest after having served as the program’s first keynote speaker earlier this year. She will return with bandmates John Kengla, Jon Spurney, Greg Beshers and Mark Stepro for a live performance in the Lewis Memorial Chapel of the Good Shepherd.  All members of the Episcopal community, including students, families, faculty and staff are invited to attend the event. Quest Fest will celebrate newcomers, country and cultures. Chaplain Charlie has worked with the Louisiana Organization of Refugees and Immigrants (LORI) and Catholic Charities to expand the scope of the event beyond the school. Special guests will include local musicians, dancers and performers.

In January, McBride spent time with Episcopal students and faculty discussing the Quest for Peace theme of finding a place in a displaced world. She shared stories with students of her travels to places like Baton Rouge’s O’Brien House and Detroit’s housing developments. Her travels have even taken her to Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Russia. Everywhere she goes McBride finds that people connect and relate through a shared love of music. This connection and joy is something McBride and her band celebrate and spread to international displaced populations through their Home Tour Program.

McBride began her professional music career at the age of five and went on her first tour at nine. Since then she has cut records, written lyrics and performed the rock and roll music she loves. She has toured the country performing in traditional settings - clubs, music venues and festivals. However, after realizing that there are audiences of people with no access to live music, she found her purpose and established the Home Tour Program to bring music to those populations.

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Baton Rouge Police Chief Murphy Paul participated in the Lower School community read earlier this year. Chaplain Charlie helped arrange his participation.

Students celebrated peace at the annual Lower School Pinwheels for Peace event.

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McBride’s time on Episcopal’s campus was powerful and meaningful. She shared stories of the unexpected sense of optimism and belonging felt among children in an orphanage in Pakistan. She told students about the expressions on the faces of people who were never allowed to sing at home when they heard her band’s melodies and were free to express themselves for the first time. McBride spoke with Episcopal ethics students about how music helps people of different cultures and abilities connect and relate. She even led a songwriting workshop to help inspire students to create their own music. There was hope and responsibility in her message. Now she returns to share that with not only Episcopal, but also the greater south Louisiana community.

​This March, McBride and her band will perform for a variety of Louisiana audiences, including coastal residents at Ilse de Jean Charles, patients at the Hematology Oncology Clinic, residents of the East Baton Rouge Parish Housing Authority and youth participating in the Line 4 Line reading program. All total there will be eight Home Tour concerts and several songwriting workshops. It is exciting to see that something that was initially planned as a one day event on Episcopal’s campus has spread to so many people in so many communities.
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“I’m most excited to see Episcopal go beyond our school community and join a larger Baton Rouge conversation,” says senior Alyssa Macaluso. “We strive to appreciate diversity within our school, but with this concert we are moving from words to actions and forging a tradition that celebrates the diversity of our broader community.” Episcopal students were eager to help in executing the Quest Fest event. They developed the event poster and organized the day’s activities. Quest Fest will even feature student performances and a student poetry slam.

​This first year of the Quest for Peace Program has been a tremendous success. Student lessons have been enhanced with resources, guest speakers and thought-provoking discussions. Join us as we celebrate this success and look forward to many more years to come.

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​​The Episcopal 2019-2020 application is now available! ​For more information on the application process, to schedule a tour, or learn more about the school, contact us at enrollment@ehsbr.org or 755-2684.

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