The Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music elected two new trustees at the annual meeting of the organization held on December 4th in the Hoffman Auditorium at the Apple Hill Center. Elected to the Board of Trustees were Charles Bingaman of Walpole and John Tonkinson of Keene.
Bingaman, an attorney by training, lived in the Chicago area most of his life where he was Executive Director of Illinois Institute of Continuing Law Education and was a leader in the Association of CLE Administrators. He also served on the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Judicial Performance Evaluations and served as a Hearing Board Chair for the Illinois Supreme Court Attorney Registrations and Commission. After his retirement and move to Walpole, he has worked as an organizational consultant for non-profits throughout the United States. Most recently he has established Leadership Walpole. He also served briefly as the interim Executive Director at Apple Hill during the summer of 2007 prior to the appointment of current Apple Hill Executive Director Leonard Matczynski.
Tonkinson, trained as a biochemist, earned his PhD at Columbia University from the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics. He was previously vice president of business development at HistRx and has also held positions at Hybridon, Schleicher & Schuell BioSciences, and most recently Protein Forest, Inc. Presently he works in new business development in the biotechnology field establishing start up companies, developing growth strategies and business models, and negotiating research and business partnerships with multinational companies. In addition to his professional background, Tonkinson served two terms as a member of the Keene Board of Education, including as chair of the board’s Finance Committee. Mr. Tonkinson lives in Keene with his wife and two children.
Officers of the Board of Trustees elected at the annual meeting were Jack Calhoun of Harrisville as President; Donall B. Healy of NYC and Stoddard, NH as Vice President; Emily Carr of Saunderstown, RI and Jaffrey, NH as Secretary, and Jan Weekes of Richmond as Treasurer. Alfrieda J. Englund was recognized for having served three years as president of the Board of Trustees, and Alfred H. Weeks, Esq was honored for having completed two terms on the Board.
After an icy four-hour drive from Donegal to Dublin, a surreal stop at the Shannon airport, a six-hour flight, and finally the drive back to Keene from Boston, we are home! In the last few years, going to Ireland has become synonymous with cozy warmth to me, both in terms of staying warm in the Gartan Centre when the weather outside is chilly and blustery and also the good cheer that seems to always be present at the AH Donegal workshop.
Last year, the string quartet gave a public concert at the Conwal Church in Letterkenny, and we loved the acoustics so much, Lenny had the idea of recording our concert there this year. Our first two days in Ireland were spent rehearsing and recording in the church, a beautiful space. Mike and Lenny were busy with the very important task of getting the equipment and sound in the mikes just right, so the days were quite long with rehearsing and testing the mikes. It is a good thing our first day ended with a wonderful dinner at the house of Leslie Brown, an adult Apple Hill participant of two summers.
Tomorrow, December 1st, is the early application deadline for the 2010 Summer Chamber Music Workshop. If you haven’t already done so, apply now and your$75 application fee will be waived! Have questions? Call us at 603-847-3371 or email music@applehill.org.
View of the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque across the Bosphorous
After over twenty-four hours of travel, we’ve arrived safely at home and have been enjoying the sunny New Hampshire skies. The four days in Istanbul were a wonderful way to end our tour. I was reminded often of my first trip to Turkey with Apple Hill in 2006. I was so taken then with the city, I immediately picked up the book Constantinople by Edmondo di Amicis, and as we flew over Istanbul with the boats visible in the Bosphorous and the city coming into view, I was reminded of Amicis’ first view of Istanbul years ago:
At last came glimmering through the veil some whitish spots, then the vague outline of a great height, then the scattered and vivid glitter of window panes shining in the sun, and finally Galata and Pera in full light, a mountain of many colored houses, one above the other; a lofty city crowned with minarets, cupolas, and cypresses… a glow of colors, an exuberance of verdure, a perspective of lovely views, a grandeur, a delight, a grace to call forth the wildest exclamations.
Our present day view of the city is certainly very different, but Istanbul still carries with it the ability to captivate and fascinate.
Lenny and the Apple Hill String Quartet with King's Academy workshop participants
Hello from Istanbul!
We left Kings Academy yesterday morning, very sad to say goodbye to Reem and our good friend Emer, a long-time Irish participant who came to Jordan to visit and spend the week with us. Our time in Jordan was full of so many amazing experiences, it is hard to know how to begin!
Some of you may remember from last year that King’s Academy is a private school started by King Abdullah in 2006 and modeled after Deerfield Academy, where the king went to high school. It is a beautiful, spacious campus with green lawns (sometimes a little hard to believe you are in Jordan) and uniformed students bustling about. This year the student population was over 400, double the size of last year. Reem, who has been at Apple Hill the past seven summers and was also a Playing for Peace scholarship student at Keene State College, has started a wonderful strings program that includes an orchestra (which she conducts!) as well as chamber music.
Apple Hill educational outreach includes tours from Turkey to California, but workshops also happen right here in New Hampshire. The Meeting School recently visited Apple Hill and wrote about their experience on The Meeting School Blog:
Thanks to board member Nancy Lloyd, on September 16 students had the opportunity to visit the Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music in Nelson, New Hampshire, and hear the Apple Hill String Quartet play a piece called the Third String Quartet by the Czech composer Viktor Ullmann.
The quartet was written in 1943 during the two years Ullmann spent in the Nazi concentration camp, Theresienstadt. Ullmann was a student of Arnold Schoenberg and was a prolific composer, writer, and critic before he was deported to the camp, although sadly, only thirteen musical works remain from that time. In October 1944, Ullmann was transferred to Auschwitz where he was killed in the gas chambers.
The quartet itself is written in two movements. The piece is only about 12 minutes in duration, but it encompasses a range of colors and moods, from lush romanticism to wildly intense characters to complete desolation.
TMS senior student Stephen reflects on his experience: “It was awesome - the four musicians were captivating and incredibly talented, and explained the piece in detail.” Another student, Charlotte (who is a cello player herself) liked the experience of meeting the musicians and watching them practice.
It was great to host the Meeting School students, and we look forward to future collaborations!
The Apple Hill String Quartet performs with George Georgiou at the Pharos Arts Foundation, Nicosia
We’ve just arrived at the beautiful grounds and guesthouse of King’s Academy, so happy to be here and see former Playing for Peace participant and good friend Reem, music teacher and dean of freshman here at the school. We flew in this afternoon after a wonderful and very busy week in Cyprus.
We arrived in Cyprus late Thursday evening last week and were greeted at the airport by George, another good friend and clarinetist who was the Cypriot organizer of our workshop in Limassol this year. We were reminiscing on this trip about the summer in 2003 when both George and Reem first came to Apple Hill (which also happened to be my first summer as faculty). Our immediate impressions having just finished our time in Cyprus are so positive, and the week was full in every sense – full of a variety of musical experiences, full of old friends, full of many new friends, and full of good food and Cypriot hospitality, which seem to always be in abundance on our visits there.
Fall is always exciting at Apple Hill. September is relaxed, a great time to regain energy after a program-packed summer. But just as the trees along Apple Hill Road burst into color, our schedules fill with performances, preparations, and… plane rides.
Currently, Lenny and the Quartet are on tour in the Middle East - hosting workshops, conducting master classes, and performing in Cyprus, Jordan, and Turkey. (Coming soon: tour journals detailing their trip!) But their travels don’t end there. Not long after returning in late November, they will then head to the Republic of Ireland for the 2009 Apple Hill Ireland Workshop at the Gartan Centre.
As always, Apple Hill alumni, donors, and supporters are encouraged to participate in these events! Dust off your instrument and attend a workshop, or temper the recession blues with an Apple Hill String Quartet concert.
“A Tuesday in the Barn,” by Dave Eisenstadter The Monadnock Ledger
June 25, 2009
The Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music summer concert series is extremely successful despite several details one might consider obstacles. The concert venue is well off the beaten path, on a dirt road in Nelson. The concerts happen on Tuesday nights. And they happen right around the time mosquitoes like to come out.
However, people like myself come back year after year. This is mostly—mostly—because of the incredible quality of the music.
The Apple Hill String Quartet and Director Lenny Matczynski present a workshop on Playing for Peace during the 2009 Washington, DC Tour. Video courtesy of the US Institute of Peace.
Fall is always exciting at Apple Hill. September is relaxed, a great time to regain energy after a program-packed summer. But just as the trees along Apple Hill Road burst into color, our schedules fill with performances, preparations, and… plane rides.