Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music
Encyclopedia
Nelson, New Hampshire
Nelson is a town in Cheshire County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 729 at the 2010 census. Nelson includes the village of Munsonville.-History:...
(just outside of Keene
Keene, New Hampshire
Keene is a city in Cheshire County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 23,409 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Cheshire County.Keene is home to Keene State College and Antioch University New England, and hosts the annual Pumpkin Fest...
), 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 quartetString quartet
A string quartet is a musical ensemble of four string players – usually two violin players, a violist and a cellist – or a piece written to be performed by such a group...
consisting of Elise Kuder and Sarah Kim playing violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
, Mike Kelley
Kelley Polar
Kelley Polar, born Michael Kelley, is an alternative dance vocalist and producer.Originally a classical violist from Providence, R.I., he studied at the Oberlin Conservatory and then at Juilliard, where he collaborated with Metro Area's Darshan Jesrani and Morgan Geist on tracks like "Miura",...
playing viola
Viola
The viola is a bowed string instrument. It is the middle voice of the violin family, between the violin and the cello.- Form :The viola is similar in material and construction to the violin. A full-size viola's body is between and longer than the body of a full-size violin , with an average...
, and Rupert Thompson playing cello
Cello
The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
.
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 IsraelIsrael
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
is and Palestinians, Protestants
Protestantism
Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...
and Catholics
Catholicism
Catholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole....
from Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
, and disadvantaged minority students from within the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, especially from Memphis
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....
and Dallas
Dallas, Texas
Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...
. The Dallas Symphony Orchestra
Dallas Symphony Orchestra
The Dallas Symphony Orchestra is an American orchestra. It performs its concerts in the Meyerson Symphony Center in the Arts District of downtown Dallas, Texas, United States....
'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
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
, "Playing for Peace," directed by Peter Rosen.
Summer Festival
From June to August in five ten-day sessions, Apple Hill becomes a chamber musicChamber music
Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...
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.