the session begins....

7/17/10
I’ve been at Apple Hill now for a few days and it has already been a great experience. Apple Hill is almost like another universe- where everyone is accepted no matter their religion, race, nationality, or any other difference that divides people in the real world. For me, Apple Hill is an escape from a fast-paced and many times intolerant world. There are so many amazing musicians here and that is the most important thing- we’re all musicians. There is really no other criteria for how we view each other here (and even in this, there is no judgment as to peoples skill level). While the mission of the camp is “playing for peace”, there is very little talk about peace during the majority of the session. The way that they achieve this is that by playing music together and being respectful and listening, the community building happens naturally. It’s funny, this is my 5th summer at Apple Hill (I think…) and I never realized that this was an intentional process, or that it was even happening at all. Lenny (the director of Apple Hill) explained it to us, and I realized that it had been happening every year without my realizing that anything was really changing throughout the session. The process of learning to respect each other, in playing music and in everyday life, is something that seems to happen naturally here at Apple Hill. I think that that is one of the things that I love most about Apple Hill. It is so amazing to see all of these people from completely different backgrounds come together, and by the second day they have already started to build a community.

In the past few days, the camp has been really busy getting ready for the beginning of session 3. I drove to Boston to pick up three cellists, one from Syria, one from Jordan, and one from Egypt. I also did a few other pick-ups around New Hampshire. Friday the 16th was the official arrival day for session 3, so we were all really busy that day signing people in and showing them around. This is the first year in the history of Apple Hill that every session of the summer is at full capacity for participants, which is great! In the afternoon, I went with a few of the other CW’s (camp workers… or counselor workers…) to Silver Lake for a swim. It was really nice to go for a swim because of how hot it was. Silver Lake is a 15 minute drive from Apple Hill, but is much nicer than the pond where we usually swim. That night we had introductions and sang some madrigals as a group activity, which was fun.

Today was the first day of coaching, and both my groups are really great! I am playing the “Trout” Quintet by Franz Schubert, and “Shaker Loops” by John Adams. I really like my schedule because I have rehearsals all morning starting at 8:45am, and then I have the rest of the day free to practice and laze around.

There will be pictures and more stories very soon!