Read the full article here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/laurence-vittes/three-concerts-on-earth-a_b_679827.html

The Quartet at Bandelier National Monument

Hello everyone!

During our time in LA, whenever we would tell people we were headed to Santa Fe, they would invariably gasp and tell us how much we were going to love it! We were given restaurant recommendations (forewarned of our choice of red or green chile at every meal, although no one told us that we would also be given a ‘Christmas’ choice, which was my favorite), scenic roads, and galleries to explore, so we were quite excited to get to Santa Fe. Already on our drive in from the airport, the landscape was strikingly unique, and what I loved were all the adobe buildings so low that the land itself didn’t seem disturbed. After exploring the central plaza area, with all the galleries, shops, museums (visited the wonderful Georgia O’Keefe museum), and restaurants, I could see why we kept getting what we ended up calling, the “Santa Fe reaction.”

Our gracious and wonderful musical hostess for the week was Pamela Epple, an oboe player who has been on faculty during the summers at Apple Hill for many years. Our main concert was on the Serenata Series of Santa Fe, which Pam directs, and held at one of the more unique venues I have ever played in, the Scottish Rite Center, a Masonic Lodge. Even from the outside, the center makes quite an impression with its sheer size compared to the low adobe buildings, pink coloring, and Moorish architecture. Inside, the hall looked a lot like a theater with all sorts of ornate embellishments, symbols, and stars lit up on the ceiling. It was a wonderful venue acoustically, and the program included quartets by Schubert, Sedgwick, and Schumann, and a piece by Hovhaness arranged for oboe and string quartet by Mike, which we performed with Pam.

Another public concert was held at Fuller Lodge in Los Alamos. We did meet a few scientists who really appreciated music and got just a glimpse of the interesting town that seems to center around the National Lab there. Another musical highlight was performing and giving a master class at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. We heard some excellent chamber music groups, and two students applied later that afternoon for the summer! We performed our educational program for some wonderful high school students at the Santa Fe Preparatory School, and finally, we gave a workshop at the Scottish Rite Center where Lenny gave our Playing for Peace™ Demo, and we heard a couple of talented younger musicians.

I was recently at a dinner party, and the guests asked me a few questions about what it was like to play in a quartet and work with other people so closely. Thinking of that conversation prompts me to recount a moment we had on this trip. Lenny sometimes describes having “100% happy moments”, and this was at least near 100% for me. We were on our way back from the University of New Mexico and decided to take a route called the Turquoise Trail. The road winds through hills with a spectacular landscape of mountains in the distance and wide open stretches of land dotted with juniper and pinon. We were driving at sunset, and the sky was lit up with gold-rimmed clouds and twilight colors of purples and pinks. All five of us were in the car in awe of the sights, not saying much, and I was just grateful to be there. Like any profession, playing in a string quartet has its intense moments, but it is our shared experiences with one another, like those “100% happy moments” we’ve had through Apple Hill, and the music itself that makes it all worthwhile.

All the best,
Sarah Kim

Our first event in California was a short performance at an arts middle and high school, the Renaissance Arts Academy. After sharing with the students about Apple Hill and hearing about the inspirational mission behind the school, I came away with the feeling that just as my similar reactions had connected experiences we’ve had in both the U.S. and in faraway places, so too did it seem more than ever that what we experience through Apple Hill is not just about bringing people of conflict areas together or bringing people from hidden corners of the world to New Hampshire (which are amazing things in themselves); it is about participating in the way that great music, in our case chamber music, brings people together no matter where or who we are.

The Renaissance Arts Academy is a public charter school that was birthed with the idea that the arts and the discipline the arts require are a vital medium for learning. The classes are held in one big open space, and every student is required to learn an instrument or dance, with classes every day in their chosen arts field. The school’s conductor-less chamber orchestra performed for us, we performed for the student body, we spoke about Apple Hill and the way chamber music brings people together at Apple Hill, we visited the different string classes, and finally we sat down with several of the school’s administrators and exchanged ideas about how music and the arts foster community and vice versa. We were impressed with the ethos of the school demonstrated even in the way the students listened so attentively, and it was fascinating to be able to discuss similarities between the school and what happens at Apple Hill with music and community-building.

Our main concert in LA was on the Dilijan music series, run by long-time Apple Hill summer faculty member, Movses Pogossian. It was just wonderful to see him and his amazing family on their home turf in Glendale, and a good deal of our time in LA was spent rehearsing with him and the wonderful pianist who joined us in the concert, Gavin Martin. Elise, Mike, Rupert, and Gavin had the daunting task of putting together in a very short amount of time the world premiere of a piano quartet written by the Armenian composer, Ashot Zohrabian. The concert was held in Zipper Hall at the Colburn School, and we were glad to see board members (Dita Englund and Steve Rosenthal) and were surprised to see so many old friends. The program was wonderful, with great performances of the Zohrabian and the Chausson Concerto for violin, piano, and string quartet with Movses and Gavin.

On our last full day in LA we gave a short performance and master class at the Pasadena Conservatory where we heard three very talented young chamber music groups. One of the groups included Cara Pogossian, 11-year old daughter of Movses who has spent virtually every summer of her life at Apple Hill. We were so pleased to work with all the groups and hope we met some soon-to-be participants!

Wishing you all well on behalf of all of us here,
Sarah Kim

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.

The View at the Gartan Centre

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.

Mike preparing the recording equipment at Conwal Church

There is something about the Ireland workshop that is so special, and as I write this I am trying to think of exactly why and can’t really pin it down. The mix of participants is always wonderful, and this year was extra special as both Josh Addison, a long-time participant now studying at UCLA with Movses Pogossian, and the lovely Amelia Perron, fresh from the south of France, were able to join us! This was the tenth anniversary of Apple Hill coming to Ireland, and there were participants this year that were at the workshop ten years ago, college-aged participants who have been coming to Apple Hill for several years now, and young participants new to Apple Hill, one of whom told me he won a scholarship through a raffle with the Donegal Youth Orchestra. Along with the five of us, the coaches included Kevin Murphy, artistic director of Music 55-7 in Derry, and Jesse Holstein, a long-time AH guest faculty member. The grounds at the Gartan Centre were as beautiful as remembered, and the similarity to Apple Hill was again noted, especially as we hunkered down when the rain changed to freezing rain and then to snow.  Each day the scenery was different, from the sight of a rainbow the first day, to a brilliant red on the hills at sunrise the next day, to cloud cover reflected in the lake the next, and finally a coat of snow covering the hills over the weekend.

Rupert, Zach, Meabh, and Amelia during the workshop

Coachings filled the day Saturday, and it ended with our concert at Conwal Church, which felt like the culmination of the entire fall. Interspersed throughout the day were some good Apple Hill moments like interesting facts at lunch, both a bane and delight to all, the rest of the Addison family showing up at the concert reception (Josh’s brother Zach is another summer participant), and good fun after the faculty concert (which included a karaoke machine!). As we walked out of the church, the snow had already begun to fall, and all through the night were periods of snow and freezing rain, which created quite a stir on Sunday as everyone worried about whether parents would be able to come to the participant concert on Sunday. Just like Apple Hill, Gartan is on a road that is not amenable to driving in harsh weather conditions.

Lenny listening

The concert happened as planned on Sunday afternoon, and despite the panic, the room was filled with family and friends. The concert was wonderful, with performances of Bach book-ending the program and Mozart, Warlock, Telemann, Boccherini, and Martinu in between. Some favorite moments to share: a 12-year old girl who had been terribly homesick Friday night shooed her parents away before the concert saying, ‘I need to practice!’, a beautifully talented young recorder player whose parents were so appreciative their daughter could be playing with such wonderful players, a performance of Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 with so many summer participants we just love, Lenny getting a little choked up bringing the workshop to a close, and a room full of people enjoying tea and a whole array of homemade baked goods (courtesy of Claire Meehan) at the reception.

A special thanks to the entire Meehan family (of whom Emer, our new summer coordinator, hails) must be given. I think a good part of why the AH Donegal workshop is so special is due to the warmth, hospitality, and care the Meehans put into it. I can picture Emer running to store bags of chips and bins of homemade mince pies that her sister Claire had made for the weekend, Emer’s mom Dot being able to discuss every one of the participants and rushing in from preparing the reception to listen to the Telemann performance, and Emer’s dad Martin seeming to be everywhere at once taking care of everything from unscrewing a pew to give us more room to play at the church to finding replacements for participants who couldn’t make it last-minute.

On behalf of all of us, I wish you all a very happy holiday season!
Sarah Kim

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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.

Elise working with a student at Kocaeli University

The Turkish Cultural Affairs Specialist at the U.S. Embassy, Sevil Sezen, greeted us at the airport. Often throughout our time there, Sevil would recount past adventures with Apple Hill in Turkey, saying fondly: “We have so many stories!” Beste, one of the first Turkish Playing for Peace scholarship recipients, met us later that afternoon to rehearse the Mozart viola quintet we would be performing with her, and in the evening, we had our first stroll down the Istikhal, the pedestrian boulevard lined with all sorts of shops and restaurants, crowded with people at any time of day or night.

The next day, we took advantage of a free morning (a rare occurrence on this trip!) to pay a short visit to the Grand Bazaar. In the early afternoon, we traveled to an area just outside the city center, Kocaeli, and performed our school program for a fine arts college there. The students were all waiting expectantly for our arrival, and Sevil told us some of them couldn’t sleep the night before. After the program, we gave a master class and heard some talented string students.

Lenny, Beste, and the Quartet with representatives from the U.S. Embassy at the Kadikoy Anatolian High School

The next morning, we performed our school program at a high school in an area of Istanbul called Kadikoy. The school specializes in English and recruits students from all over Turkey. The students were very responsive to the program, and the volunteer from the audience, Imre, was so good that the audience cheered at several points during the piece. Later that day, we gave a short performance and class at the Istanbul University Conservatory, where Beste went to school and now teaches. We heard some really wonderful players and were pleased that one of them was a student of Beste. That evening, we gave a performance at the U.S. Consul General’s residence, where we played a short piece by Puccini, Dan Sedgwick’s Theme and Variations (which was very well received), the Mozart quintet with Beste, and a short encore.

Four generations of violists: Beste, her student at Istanbul University, Mike, and Lenny

The last day of our tour started with a short performance and master class at the wonderful Pera Fine Arts High School. Each student we heard was really talented, and after the initial jitters, it was wonderful to see each one of them open up and really enjoy the class. That afternoon, we performed a public concert with Beste in a unique venue, the Istanbul Modern, a museum of modern art in a recently renovated warehouse overlooking the Bosphorous. Along with the invited audience, people visiting the museum would also stop by and listen for a while.

At 3:30 the next morning, we all gathered in the lobby of our hotel for the long journey home. Many thanks to Sevil and the U.S. Consulate for all the events in Turkey! Since the very first days in Cyprus, the tour continued to be just so full, and I hope these updates have given you a glimpse of all that was experienced. Once again, I feel privileged to be a part of Apple Hill, and I am sure these days in the Middle East will contribute to another wonderful summer at Apple Hill as well as more connections and music-making in the future!

Wishing you all the best on behalf of all of us,
Sarah Kim

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.

King's Academy: Reem conducts a string ensemble at while Lenny coaches

Our first day began with a school-wide assembly concert where we performed our school program. The volunteers that Lenny has chosen to play the violin for the first time have all been excellent, and the volunteer student at the King’s Academy assembly ended up coming to all our events, even though they hadn’t shown much interest in music previously. Later that afternoon we also had the opportunity to hear all the string students in a master class. We were really impressed with the program and how Reem is focusing on chamber music with these students, some of whom are just beginning to play.

Our workshop began later that evening with participants from Kings Academy, Jordan, and Syria. The conductor of the orchestra in Damascus once again escorted a wonderful group of Syrian musicians, including two who participated in last fall’s King’s Academy workshop. The Jordanian musicians were also wonderful and included a few participants from last year as well as one of the Playing for Peace scholarship students from this past summer, Rania. Another former Playing for Peace scholarship student that participated in the workshop and who we were very excited to see again was Dima, a young violinist we first met in Ramallah at Al Kamandjati and who is now a student at King’s Academy. The workshop this year had such an amazing energy, and it really felt like a mini Apple Hill session. The range of groups was wonderful, beginning with a younger mixed wind and string group mostly from Kings Academy to groups of mixed Syrians and Jordanians playing at a professional level.

The Ravel string quartet I worked with

I worked with a group that performed the first movement of the Ravel string quartet, and everything about this group reminded me of why I love Apple Hill. The quartet included two Syrians and two Jordanians, and I had my own Playing for Peace moment: when I first met them I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from these four macho guys, but by the end of the workshop, I just loved them all. The Ravel string quartet is very difficult - it calls for sophisticated musical timing and a whole palette of different colors - and we only had two and a half days to put it together! On top of that, they had never really played music by French composers, and after the first day, I gathered they weren’t too fond of it. So, we had a big task ahead of us to be prepared for the concert, and I also really wanted them to love the piece.

The second day, things went a little better, and I started to see the players get more comfortable with the sound of the music. That day, the whole group of participants had lunch in Madaba, the nearby town, and visited a church with mosaics from the 6th century. In the evening, the Apple Hill String Quartet played our full program for the participants, visitors from Amman, and students and faculty from King’s Academy.

On the morning of the last day of the workshop, my group played through the piece, and I couldn’t believe how much better it was. They listened to one another and made the colors and timing that the music called for. Not only that, I could see the dynamic between the four of them opening up, which for them meant there was a fair amount of teasing going on. The first violinist was a wonderful Syrian player who had gotten up at 5 am that morning to practice, and when he told me that, the others said exasperatedly that they had gotten up because of the noise. The participant concert was again a wonderful sharing of music, and I felt each group really prepared something special. The group I worked with went beyond what they knew they could do. They learned an amazing piece of music, and seemed to become friends while doing it, which encapsulates what Apple Hill is all about.

The Apple Hill String Quartet with young Jordanian students in Aqaba

That evening, the headmaster of King’s Academy invited all of us to a wonderful dinner at his home, and the quartet played three short pieces for the guests and students who had gathered round after dinner. On Sunday morning we traveled to Aqaba, a resort city by the Red Sea, and we began our events hosted by the U.S. Embassy by performing for students from the newly opened University of Jordan Aqaba. The next morning we performed the school program for a group of high school students from Aqaba and Maan, and in the afternoon we traveled to Hussein Bin Talal University in Maan and performed for 200 students there. Most of the students were not used to listening to western classical music, and the program was a perfect introduction to the world of the string quartet as well as a great way to engage the students from a more conservative part of Jordan. They asked excellent questions (”Why do you move when you play?” “Do you play any Jordanian music?”), and it was wonderful to interact with them.

Elise and I with Jordanian Army violinists

Our last day in Jordan began at the National Music Conservatory in Amman with a master class for musicians learning to play instruments in the Jordanian army orchestra. It was definitely a sight to see a group of men in their Jordanian army uniforms playing in an orchestra, with a young conductor from Colombia, no less! In the afternoon, Lenny and Elise started our press events with a live radio interview on MOOD FM, then we met with a newspaper reporter, and at the hall we would be performing at later that evening, we had a short television interview. We performed our public concert in Amman at the Al Hussein Cultural Center, and it was wonderful to see so many old and new friends from the workshops as well as various Embassy officials such as the Public Affairs Officer. We even met a woman from Keene who works for the Embassy in Jordan! Many thanks to the U.S. Embassy for hosting a great few days of events and many thanks to Reem for an amazing time at King’s Academy!

Hope all is very well back home - on behalf of all of us here,

Sarah Kim

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.

Workshop Participants in Limassol, Cyprus

At our concert last night in the incredible home of the president of the Pharos Arts Foundation, our host Garo Kereyan gave a short introduction, speaking of the power of music and the important difference music can make in society. One of the things I love about these tours is that we honestly do see that happening, whether it is through the lives of individual Playing for Peace participants that have come to Apple Hill over the years or through a young teenager we just met playing chamber music for the first time in our workshop.

Even on a personal level, I’ve experienced this on tour. The first leg of the journey can be quite difficult when we are struggling with jet lag and the demands of a day (like our second day in Cyprus, which started with a master class and short performance in the morning with the Cyprus Youth Symphony, followed by an hour long drive to Limassol, a city by the Mediterranean Sea where our workshop was held, then an initial coaching session, and then our evening performance for the participants and faculty of the music school). Lenny describes being quite tired, but while he listened to our rehearsal with George of the slow movement of the Mozart Clarinet Quintet, all the weariness of the day melted away. I felt similarly the next day when the principal of the Limassol Music School - who was so pleased to host us - surprised us before the participant concert with a presentation of different school ensembles: a chorus with all the students in the school, the school band, and a mixed traditional music ensemble. It was really moving, and as the workshop participants began to perform as well, I felt it was a true sharing of music with all the joy that entails. The concert space was packed with parents, other students from the school, and faculty, and the concert ended with Lenny conducting a larger ensemble performing the Vivaldi Four Violin Concerto.

Lenny and the Apple Hill String Quartet at Eastern Mediterranean University in northern Cyprus

Compared to Elise, Mike, and Rupert, I feel relatively new to these tours, and I am still surprised when reminded each time about how many friends we have made through Apple Hill, and how much Apple Hill has been a part of so many different lives - from young musicians to people who have worked at various U.S. Embassies through the years. One of the teachers with the Cyprus Youth Symphony was a Romanian violinist who had met Rupert and Elise on a Playing for Peace tour in Lebanon. On Tuesday, we were able to go into northern Cyprus to hear six talented young musicians at Eastern Mediterranean University, and during lunch the Turkish Cypriot woman who works for the U.S. Embassy, Ipek Uzunoglu, was remembering the different Turkish Cypriot musicians who have come to Apple Hill, including a young violinist named Nihat who first came to Apple Hill when he was only thirteen and now plays in the Ankara State Orchestra. On Monday evening, we gave a performance at the Ambassador’s residence, and our host Ambassador Urbancic fondly remembers hosting Apple Hill in Istanbul when he was consul general there.

And of course, we love seeing the musicians that have been participants over the years. At the workshop, we were able to work again with all three scholarship participants from this past summer, Nikolas, Alexia, and Jelena, along with former Playing for Peace scholarship recipients Maria and Stelios. Also, we were impressed with the musical life George leads in Cyprus while remembering the first summer in 2003 when George was just a young, rather imposing, teenager in the Cypriot army. He is now teaching clarinet and chamber music at the Limassol Music School, works with the Cyprus Youth Symphony, and is quite busy performing as well.

On stage with the principal of the Agios Demetrios Primary School, the Inspector of Music at the Ministry of Education, a young future violinist, and Christina Hadjiparaskeva, cultural specialist at the U.S. Embassy

Along with seeing old friends, we were also excited to make many new ones. Once again, we got to know a variety of new contacts, from young musicians to the president of the Pharos Arts Foundation. On Monday morning, our events hosted by the U.S. Embassy began with a concert for 140 schoolchildren at the Agios Demetrios Primary School in Acropolis. Our school outreach program went very well, especially the piece that included a volunteer from the audience (almost as good as Jack!). The Inspector of Music at the Cyprus Ministry of Education told us afterward that it was a special event and that the young volunteer now wants to start playing the violin.

The workshop at Limassol brought together about 35 musicians, many of whom were young musicians who hadn’t taken part in an Apple Hill workshop before. George told us that the students had been looking forward to the workshop for weeks, and as we walked up to the school each day, we would hear the strains of all the different pieces we were coaching. We’re looking forward to seeing these new ones in future Cypriot workshops and at Apple Hill.

Additionally, on Tuesday evening, we performed a fund-raising concert for the Pharos Arts Foundation music education program. The performance was enthusiastically received and was attended by important figures in the Cypriot musical community as well as dignitaries such as the Czech Ambassador and the Public Affairs Officer at the U.S. Embassy.

So, after a full first week, we are looking forward to the week of events here in Jordan, where we are already seeing old friends from the workshop last year and previous summers at Apple Hill.

Wishing you all the best on behalf of all of us here,
Sarah Kim