“Apple Hill exists to create, perform, and teach chamber music at the highest standard, broaden

the appreciation of chamber music through the development of educational programs,

and cultivate connection and understanding among people of diverse backgrounds and cultures

through the Playing for Peace program.”

Apple Hill Center for CHAmber musiC

Leonard Matczynski, Director

Apple Hill String Quartet:Elise Kuder, Violin

Colleen Jennings, ViolinMichael Kelley, Viola

Rupert Thompson, Cello

Apple Hill Center for Chamber MusicP.O. Box 217, Sullivan, NH 03445

www.applehill.org • 603-847-3371

Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music is a non-profit organization that depends on support from individuals,

foundations and corporations. All contributions are tax-deductible. Apple Hill is an equal opportunity employer.

Apple Hill Center for CHAmber musiC

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CENTER FOR CHAMBER MUSICFounded in 1971 and situated on 100 acres of fields and woodlands in rural New Hampshire, Apple Hill is a unique center of chamber music performance and education. Led by Director Leonard Matczynski and the Apple Hill String Quartet, the only resident string quartet in the state of New Hampshire,

Apple Hill is one of the few centers in the country that has a home campus, resident musicians, educational programs for aspiring musicians, and Playing for Peace, an outreach program that focuses on social change through chamber music.

PerformanceSince its founding in 2007, the Apple Hill String Quartet has earned praise around the world for its concerts presenting interpretive mastery of traditional repertoire – including Haydn, Mozart, Schubert, Schumann, Beethoven, and Ravel – as well as for world premieres and commissioned pieces. As resident musicians at the Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music, the Quartet is featured in the summer concert series held every Tuesday night at the Center in Nelson, N.H. These concerts attract hundreds of visitors and have become a mainstay of the Monadnock area summer music offerings.

EducationEducation is an integral part of the Quartet’s mission. For three months in the summer, the Quartet comprises the core faculty for five separate 10-day summer workshops held at Apple Hill and attended by 300 participants. During the regular concert season, the Quartet conducts mini-residencies in embassies, communities, schools, and universities from the Monadnock region to major U.S. cities and around the world as part of Apple Hill’s Playing for Peace program.

THE APPLE HILL STRING QUARTETRupert Thompson, cello; Elise Kuder, violin; Colleen Jennings, violin; Michael Kelley, viola Photo by Peter Roos

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Tuesday Night Concert SeriesOn 10 Tuesday evenings during the summer, Apple Hill opens its door to the public for world-class concerts featuring summer faculty and students. These concerts have become a staple of a Monadnock summer for the region’s many music lovers.

Leonard Matczynski, Executive and Artistic DirectorWith a career in the performing arts spanning 30 years, Leonard Matczynski has worked as a concert violist, teacher, and arts administrator. As Executive and Artistic Director of Apple Hill, he shapes Apple Hill’s performance and

administrative structure, its concert and tour programs, Playing for Peace, its long-range plans, and the development of new initiatives. He is the spokesperson for Apple Hill’s mission, and its representative to the music community, patrons, and audiences. As a concert violist, he

studied with Martha Strongin Katz, Heidi Castleman, and Karen Tuttle, participated in chamber music studies with members of the Budapest, Cleveland, and Guarneri quartets, and pursued advanced studies at the International Musicians Seminar in Prussia Cove, England, with Sandor Vegh. He has been a soloist with many musical organizations, as well as a guest artist in summer festivals at Aspen, Tanglewood, Marlboro, Monadnock Music, and Pepsico Summerfare. In addition, Mr. Matczynski has been deeply involved in the training and mentoring of young performing artists. He was on the faculty of the Walnut Hill School for the Arts, New England Conservatory of Music, and the Tanglewood Music Center, and is currently on the viola and chamber music faculty of the Boston Conservatory and the Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music. From 1993 to 2007, he was the founding executive director of Emmanuel Music in Boston, Massachusetts, responsible for the organization’s development through the production of concerts that featured repertoire from the baroque to the contemporary era, in large and small ensembles, including more than 200 cantatas of J.S. Bach. He took Emmanuel Music on tours of the U.S. and Europe with choreographer Mark Morris and stage director Peter Sellars, and co-produced six highly acclaimed CDs with Emmanuel Music – among them a recording of Bach cantatas with Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, which was named one of the top CDs by The New York Times in 2003.

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Commissioned WorksAs 21st-century musicians, members of the Quartet are deeply committed to the performance of new works. Recent premieres include Traces by Syrian composer Kareem Roustom, commissioned by Apple Hill, Dartmouth College, and Arizona State University, featuring Israeli pianist Sally Pinkas, Syrian clarinetist Kinan Azmeh, and the Apple Hill String Quartet; Crossroads by John Harbison, co-commissioned by Apple Hill and 15 music organizations throughout the U.S., featuring soprano Kendra Colton, oboist Peggy Pearson, string bassist Susan Hagen, and the Apple Hill String Quartet; and Quartet No. 1 by Daniel Sedgwick, commissioned by Apple Hill. Future performances include a work by John Harbison, commissioned by Apple Hill, for solo cello, oboe, string bass, and the Apple Hill String Quartet, to be premiered in the summer of 2015. The Quartet’s project, “Around the World with Playing for Peace,” features the rich multicultural repertoire of countries visited through the Playing for Peace program. Featured composers have included Victor Ullman and Erwin Schulhoff, both of whom perished in Nazi concentration camps; Turkish composer Ekrem Zeki Ün; Armenian composers Alan Hovhaness and A. Zohrabian; Syrian composer Kareem Roustom; and American composers Roger Sessions, John Harbison, Tom Oboe Lee, Meredith Monk, Lawrence Siegel, and Charles Ives.

Summer faculty Kinan Azmeh, clarinet

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SUMMER AT APPLE HILLSummer Chamber Music WorkshopDuring the summer months, Apple Hill is transformed into a bustling school and popular concert venue known and loved for its musical depth and warm community spirit. Five 10-day chamber music workshops welcome 300 students of all ages and varied skill levels to train under 45 highly esteemed faculty. More than 12,000 students have attended the summer workshop since its founding in the early 1970s. Participants are placed in small ensembles and coached daily, with a public performance capping off their experience. Apple Hill believes in honoring the special voice in all musicians. Faculty members coach, encourage, and applaud all groups equally, from high-level ensembles to those with participants who are just starting to play chamber music. The goal is to use the tools of coaching and performance to build confidence and ability in each student. Through the generosity of many contributors, Apple Hill is able to offer need-based scholarship assistance to one out of three summer students, which enables them to study at Apple Hill. For many, the experience of living and playing music

with people from all over the world is transformative. A recent summer brought together musicians from Syria, Israel, the Palestinian West Bank, the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, England, Cyprus, Jordan, Egypt, Malaysia, and many states throughout the U.S.

Movses Pogossian, summer faculty, coaching students

“Apple Hill inspired me. It makes me practice better, listen better, play better, believe more, love more. It makes me leave wanting to be that person every day.”– Summer participant from the U.S.

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PLAYING FOR PEACECentral to the mission of Apple Hill is Playing for Peace, an innovative outreach program founded in 1988 that focuses on social change and conflict resolution through music. The Quartet performs concerts and leads chamber music workshops in areas where there is a history of conflict: the Middle East in Turkey, Jordan, Israel, Egypt, and the West Bank/Palestine; England, Northern Ireland, and the Republic of Ireland; the Greek and Turkish areas of Cyprus; and the Eurasian Caucasus. They also bring Playing for Peace to many U.S. cities, including New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Dallas, Memphis, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. The principal tenet of Playing for Peace is this: musicians are assigned to play in small ensembles alongside musicians from conflicting communities. For example, Arabs study and perform music with Israelis, Catholics with Protestants, Greeks with Turks, and African Americans with Caucasian Americans. Each ensemble is coached in the skills of chamber music—listening, watching, adjusting, being sensitive, and flexible—the same skills needed to work and function effectively in today’s contentious world. Participants learn to play music, communicate, and connect with each other in ways that may not be possible in their home communities.

Summer participants from the Republic of Ireland

“Jew, Christian, Muslim—none of that existed in the universe we were creating—we were all simply human.”– A participant from Ramallah, the West Bank, after a session at Apple Hill

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Over the years, Apple Hill has formed partnerships with music programs and institutions around the globe as part of its Playing for Peace program. These include U.S. embassies, universities, schools, conservatories, and youth orchestras in many countries, including Ireland, Turkey, Cyprus, and Jordan, as well as partnerships with Project STEP in Boston; Dallas Young Strings in Dallas, Texas; Community

MusicWorks in Providence, Rhode Island; and schools in San Francisco, Los Angeles, the Baltimore/Washington D.C. metro area, and Memphis, Tennessee. Through matching scholarship programs with these organizations, students are able to attend Apple Hill’s summer workshops. Summer participants arrive at Apple Hill from New Hampshire, many U. S. states, and around the world to work with one another in an atmosphere that promotes diversity, creativity, and understanding through excellence in music.

Summer faculty Kate Vincent, coaching Session I participants

“Apple Hill nourishes the soul.” – Summer participant from Israel

“Jew, Christian, Muslim—none of that existed in the universe we were creating—we were all simply human.”– A participant from Ramallah, the West Bank, after a session at Apple Hill