Playing for Peace
In the fifties, I toured for the State Department, just as Apple Hill is doing now. It took the myopic conflict between just black and white in the United States and put it on another level. Because you saw the turmoil between the Armenians and the Turks, and the Cypriots and the Greeks, and the Swedes and the Danes, and the Koreans and the Japanese. Everybody has these hassles, and you saw it was a basic part of human nature. It opened my soul, it opened my mind. Apple Hill gets musicians from countries in conflict together to work things out through music. These are the global conversations we need to have.
—Quincy Jones
Description and History
Central to Apple Hill’s mission is Playing for Peace™, a program dedicated to using music as a tool for conflict resolution. By definition, chamber music is a democratic process. Because there is no conductor, players must connect effectively—verbally and non-verbally— to achieve a common musical goal. These skills open the door to other levels of communication. Music’s capacity to bring together people of diverse backgrounds to bridge differences and enhance global awareness is the foundation of the Playing for Peace™ philosophy.
How does Playing for Peace™ work? During the regular concert season, the Apple Hill Chamber Players tour worldwide — performing concerts, conducting master classes and workshops, and awarding scholarships to musicians of conflicting cultures. These students then attend the Summer Chamber Music Workshop held annually at the Apple Hill campus in Nelson, New Hampshire.
The Playing for Peace™ initiative began in 1988, when the Apple Hill Chamber Players toured Israel under the auspices of the U.S. State Department and Embassy in Israel. While on tour, they awarded Apple Hill scholarships to Israeli-Jewish and Israeli-Palestinian musicians. The following summer, these participants honed their music skills and became friends at the Summer Chamber Music Workshop, where they were placed together in ensembles and coached by the Apple Hill Chamber Players and guest faculty.
Due to its success, Playing for Peace™ soon expanded to include other countries, including Jordan, Egypt, and Syria. Filmmaker Peter Rosen accompanied the Players on their 1992 tour and made the acclaimed documentary “Playing for Peace,” which was broadcasted nationally on PBS. The film tells the story of the tour and the experiences of Israeli and Arab students at Apple Hill.
In 2000, the Apple Hill concert in Beirut, Lebanon was the first cultural event presented by the U.S. Embassy in twenty years. The 2004 Apple Hill concert in Algiers was a watershed event – the first public concert since the 1992 Civil War.
Due to the success of the international Playing for Peace™ program, a domestic Playing for Peace™ initiative was established to bring participants from rural and urban United States communities to Apple Hill. Through scholarship programs in Massachusetts, Texas, Tennessee, and California, Apple Hill extends musical coaching and mentorship to inner-city minority youth. Scholarships are funded by a combination of tuition, individual contributions, and foundation grants.
In 2005, Apple Hill received a two-year grant from the U.S. Department of State to improve conflict resolution through the Playing for Peace™ program in the Caucasus Region – Azerbaijan 
and the Republic of Georgia – and in Russia, Cyprus, Turkey, Jordan, Malaysia, Vietnam and Burma. Scholarship recipients from these regions then attended the 2006 and 2007 Summer Chamber Music Workshops.
In November of 2007, the Apple Hill Chamber Players toured Israel and the West Bank. Their workshop in Nazareth was the first time Israeli-Jewish and Israel-Arab students had played together since 1998. In December, they traveled to England, Northern Ireland, and Republic of Ireland. In each location, the Chamber Players performed with Playing for Peace™ alumni, and selected scholarship students for the 2008 Summer Chamber Music Workshop.
After twenty years, many early participants are now using the Playing for Peace™ model in their regions and countries, and a new generation of musicians is discovering Apple Hill.