Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music

View from Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music

The Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music is located in Nelson, New Hampshire (just outside of Keene), housed in the buildings of an old horse farm on Apple Hill Road, on the eponymous hill. The center was founded in 1973.

Apple Hill Chamber Players

The musical core of Apple Hill is the Apple Hill Chamber Players group, which in its current incarnation is a string quartet consisting of Elise Kuder and Sarah Kim playing violin, Mike Kelley playing viola, and Rupert Thompson playing cello.

Playing for Peace

The Chamber Players have gone on annual tours since 1988, both for traditional performances and master classes as well as awarding Summer Festival scholarships to music students from diverse backgrounds, especially from ethnicities and nations in conflict, including Israelis and Palestinians, Protestants and Catholics from Northern Ireland, and disadvantaged minority students from within the United States, especially from Memphis and Dallas. The Dallas Symphony Orchestra's Young Strings program works with Apple Hill to encourage poor minority students through music, giving dedicated and talented students free music lessons from symphony players. The 1992 tour of the Middle East was featured in a PBS documentary, "Playing for Peace," directed by Peter Rosen.

Summer Festival

From June to August in five ten-day sessions, Apple Hill becomes a chamber music camp, involving a total of approximately 275 participants each year (most stay for one or two sessions) with professional coaching. The Apple Hill camp is unique in its inclusion of adult participants and dedication to bringing diverse and sometimes conflicting groups together (see Playing for Peace), as well as its laid-back atmosphere. Faculty each session and in between sessions give concerts open and free to the public.

External links

• Apple Hill website