Founded in the early 1970's, Apple Hill is a center of high-level classical music performance and teaching, stewarded today by the organization's Director, Leonard Matczynski, and ensemble-in-residence, the Apple Hill String Quartet. This group of professional musicians presents concerts throughout the world and, for three months of the summer, teaches and coaches chamber music to participants of all ages and levels at Apple Hill’s beautiful facility in the Monadnock region in Southern New Hampshire.

In the early days of Apple Hill, the founding Apple Hill Chamber Players developed a teaching and performing philosophy that exists today: that everyone is accepted for who they are at any level, that every person has an expressive voice to be heard, and that every participant deserves to be equally encouraged and supported. This unique philosophy of communal support has since inspired musicians of all ages and levels to find their expressive voice at Apple Hill, to learn from one another, and to share this voice with others in chamber music. Generations of participants, old and young, take this core philosophy home with them and keep this special place in the hills of Nelson, NH close to their heart. Participants are also drawn to the warm family atmosphere of Apple Hill, where musicians, staff, their spouses and children share meals, chores and social events, creating a unique musical and human community.

Apple Hill invites audiences to share its music and its spirit with a number of concert events: a local series during the concert season in historic New Hampshire towns, and two summer series: Tuesday evening concerts from mid-June through mid-August featuring Apple Hill’s renowned summer faculty and, once the intensive daily coaching sessions are finished, participant concerts on weekends. Audiences share in the collaboration - hearing performances of chamber music full of insight, wonder, and discovery played with love, passion, and joy.

The summer program expanded its reach after Apple Hill first toured the Middle East in 1988. Apple Hill performed concerts, workshops and master classes, and awarded scholarships to talented young Israeli and Palestinians to attend Apple Hill and play chamber music together. This marked the beginning of what is now the organization's signature program Playing for Peace and for 20 years, one musician at a time, Apple Hill has quietly conducted a peaceful revolution that began with a suggestion that Apple Hill coach ensembles of young Arabs and Israelis. Playing for Peace is considered a unique model for cultural exchange which promotes friendship, peace, understanding, and basic human contact between people, in this case musicians, in areas of the world beleaguered by irreconcilable conflict. The goal for this program is to offer the participants a unique opportunity to transcend national and cultural boundaries and differences and create meaningful bonds of friendship and understanding while participating in an exceptional pedagogical program. Today the Playing for Peace program has expanded to include tours to many US cities as well as Europe, the Middle East, Malaysia, Russia, and the Caucuses. Summer participants arrive from around the world and every US state. Participants from more than twenty-five countries, including Russia, Iraq, Israel and Palestine, Turkey, Jordan, both communities of Cyprus, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia, England, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, and a host of others, join musicians from New Hampshire and throughout the United States in an atmosphere that promotes creativity and understanding through excellence in musicianship.

Due to its passionate commitment to learning and understanding through the language of music, Apple Hill has had a profound effect on the lives of many. After over 30 years, many early participants are now using Apple Hill’s unique philosophy and the Playing for Peace™ model in their regions and countries, and a new generation of musicians is discovering Apple Hill.

Violinist Elise Kuder is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory and The Juilliard School. Her teachers and coaches have included Monica VanderBaan, Marilyn McDonald, Joel Smirnoff, David Takeno, Eugene Lehner, Felix Galimir, Gilbert Kalisch, Robert Merfeld, and Lenny Matczynski. She attended the Tanglewood Music Center where she won the Kohn Award for outstanding musicianship and served as concertmaster of the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra. The Boston Globe called her Tanglewood performances "first-rate." As a Fulbright scholar, Elise studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, England where she was first violinist of the Tate Quartet, which made its successful debut at Wigmore Hall in London. She began her association with Apple Hill as one of its youngest participants at age 12, and now is the first violinist of The Apple Hill Chamber Players. With Apple Hill she has performed and taught throughout the US and in such faraway places as Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel, Palestine, Algiers, Cyprus, Ireland, England, Burma, Vietnam, Malaysia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, and Russia as part of Apple Hill's Playing for Peace Program. She serves as the core faculty for Apple Hill's Summer Chamber Music Workshop where she directs sessions, performs concerts, and coaches chamber music throughout the summer. Elise currently lives in Sullivan, NH.

Sarah Kim began her musical studies at the age of three, and has performed extensively in Europe and the United States. She has been a soloist with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, the Guildhall String Ensemble, and the Samara Philharmonic in Russia. As a chamber musician, she has performed at the Wigmore Hall in London, with the Apple Hill Chamber Players in Ireland and Northern Ireland, and has participated in numerous festivals, including the Yellow Barn Chamber Music Festival, the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, the Taos School of Music, and the Takacs String Quartet Seminar. She has received degrees from Indiana University and the Yale School of Music. Her principal teachers have included Josef Gingold, Miriam Fried, Peter Oundjian, and David Takeno.

Mike Kelley received degrees from Oberlin Conservatory and The Juilliard School. His teachers have included Lenny Matczynski, Jeffrey Irvine and Karen Tuttle. A prize winner at the Primrose International Viola Competition at the age of 18, Mike has been performing and teaching internationally with the Apple Hill Chamber Players for over 10 years. An active composer and electronic musician, he has been a Teaching Fellow in Electronic Music at Juilliard, and has created scores for everyone from Yale University to the acclaimed Disco group Metro Area. His recent award-winning recording has been described as "gorgeous—one of the top albums of 2005" ((Stylus Magazine) and has been highly recommended by Entertainment Weekly, Spin Magazine and the Guardian.

Rupert Thompson made his solo debut with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. He has studied with Mihaly Virizlay and Timothy Eddy, holding degrees from the Peabody Institute (BM) in Baltimore Md., and SUNY Stony Brook of New York (MM and DMA). Rupert has received a career grant from the Concert Artist Guild, as well as the C.D Jackson Memorial Award of Merit from the Tanglewood Music Center. Live radio broadcasts of his solo engagements include WFMT of Chicago and WQXR in New York City. In addition to his active concert schedule, Rupert is also a photographer and film composer.