World Affairs Council of NH – Global Tipping Points

A three-part series on today’s global challenges

Monday, December 3rd

Featuring Playing for Peace

Location: Multi-purpose Room, UNH Manchester, 88 Commercial Street (Pandora Mill), Manchester. Directions & Parking Info Here. (For safety and storm closure information, check here)

About Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music and Playing for Peace 

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.

Founded in 1971 and situated on 100 acres of fields and woodlands in rural New Hampshire, Apple Hill is a center of chamber music performance and teaching. It is stewarded today by the organization’s director, Leonard Matczynski, and ensemble-in-residence, the Apple Hill String Quartet. These professional musicians present concerts and educational workshops throughout the world and, during the summer, teach and coach chamber music to participants of all ages and levels at Apple Hill’s Chamber Music Workshop. Each summer, Apple Hill welcomes 300 students and 45 faculty to the Workshop, a program known and loved for its musical depth and warm community spirit. Over 12,000 students have attended since the early 1970s.

Central to the mission of Apple Hill is Playing for Peace, an innovative outreach program founded in 1988 that focuses on social change and connection through music. Apple Hill travels to areas where there is a history of conflict—in the Middle East to Turkey, Jordan, Israel, Egypt, and the West Bank/Palestine; to England, Northern Ireland, and the Republic of Ireland; to the Greek and Turkish areas of Cyprus; to the Caucuses area of Eurasia; and to many US cities, including New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Dallas, Memphis, Los Angeles, and San Francisco—performing concerts and leading chamber music workshops.

The principal tenet of Playing for Peace is this: At the chamber music workshops, 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. We coach each ensemble in the skills of chamber music—listening, watching, adjusting, sensitivity, and being flexible—the same skills needed to work and function effectively in the world. The participants learn not only to play music but also to communicate and connect with each other in ways that may not be possible in their home countries.

Presented in partnership with UNH Manchester’s homeland security, history, humanities and politics and society programs, and the Fulbright Association