Elise Kuder, violinist with the Apple Hill String Quartet, speaks about her experiences with Apple Hill. Elise began her association with Apple Hill as a Summer Chamber Music Workshop participant at age 12. What is it like to be a student at Apple Hill and then return as a musician-in-residence? I remember attending an Apple Hill Chamber Players concert in Harvard Square in the early 90s while in high school and thinking how fantastic everything was: the Players, chamber music concerts in great acoustics, meeting up with Apple Hill summer friends, and the excitement and freedom of the big city at night. Although never expressed aloud, part of a dream to play chamber music full time began that evening.  Now, years later, that dream is being realized. However, it is different than I originally conceived. While being a member of the Apple Hill String Quartet is a privilege, the real success is not that it is a goal to be achieved, but that it provides room for continual growth and beauty, as a performer, artist, teacher and administrator. Having grown up at Apple Hill and experienced freedom, support, fun and challenge, I wish the same for workshop participants today. This requires a lot of hard work, the wonder and exhaustion of responsibility. I may have been blissfully unaware of this as a student! What is it like to go on a Playing for Peace tour? Playing for Peace tours are fun, exciting, tasty, tiring, dangerous (for the people sitting next to me on a plane during turbulence), funny, overwhelming and wonderful. The thing I take away most from touring is how little I knew. Like most travel, at first everything is new, foreign, and possibly uncomfortable. As a wise person (Lenny) once said, Apple Hill introduces new, unfamiliar situations and makes them comfortable and normal. You have stretched and are ready for your next step. I have felt this process in the cities and countries we have visited over the years. Students, embassy workers, audiences, (and delicious foods!) become friends and family to us. I hope Apple Hill continues to return to familiar places and find new spaces to explore. What is your favorite “Apple Hill moment”? Of course there is always the time the entire camp donned shower caps for the inauguration of the new Bathhouse! However, one of my favorite moments of each session is watching the groups I have coached perform. All of the groups are fantastic, of course, but the ensembles you work with are special. You know where they started, how hard they’ve worked, any difficulties experienced, artistic nuances and subtleties strived for, fun and joyous times and ones you all almost gave up. Also, being on stage makes one vulnerable. Anything could happen! And it does! But it is often in those moments that something courageous and spectacular occurs. Listening to performances of groups with whom I have had the honor of working never ceases to get me choked up. I try to hide it well! A favorite moment specific to this past summer was performing a set of Schubert songs, beautifully arranged for violin and viola by Mike Kelley. Schubert has long been a personal favorite. Much of his music is technically difficult, but needs to sound easy and natural. For this particular performance, Mike and I were joined on stage by former AH violist, Betty Hauck, who read aloud the poetry of each Schubert song while seated in a comfy armchair. The intimacy of the barn and the duet form, the poetry of nature and love, the friendship of Mike and Betty, and the music itself made this evening enchanted for me. Betty and I lobbied to have a cat on stage, as a prop to join the armchair. We were (wisely) vetoed! You will be giving a solo recital this summer! What are the differences in preparing for a solo recital as compared to a chamber music performance? I haven’t given a solo recital in a while. I’ll have to let you know how it goes! Just kidding. Actually, I’m not! I have rehearsed and performed with the Quartet now going on five years and often feel that I sound my best with them. I rely on their musical input, spoken and played.  The repertoire for my solo recital can be based more on a personal perspective and I look forward to the creative challenges that come with working with a pianist. It will still be chamber music! Perhaps I’ll get a cat on stage this time…