Media
Feature Articles
“Art and Alterity”: Instruments Play for Peace
The Bates Student
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
By Andrew Wilcoz
Assistant Arts & Living Editor
History makes the case: the arts precede revolutions, catalyze change and inspire progress. As contemporary evidence, one musical act stands out in particular. To employ the arts as instruments of peace is the mission of the Apple Hill Chamber Players. Monday, Feb. 4, they performed at the Bates Chapel as a part of the program “Art and Alterity: beyond the Other as Enemy in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.”
The Apple Hill Chamber Players, a string quartet supported by the Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music in New Hampshire, founded in 1988, play for peace. For the past decade or so, they have been on a quest to mitigate conflict through music by traveling to the world’s greatest conflict zones.
The quartet, comprised of Elise Kuder, Sarah Kim, Michael Kelley and Rupert A. Thompson, performed Ravel’s “Quartet in F Major,” and Beethoven’s “String Quartet in E minor, Op. 59 #2.” Each piece was invigorating yet placidly gorgeous. The players each invoked heavy concentration made obvious by absorbed eye contact and a synchronized sway through which they, as a group, felt the music.
Both the “Quartet in F Major” and the “String Quartet in E minor” were beautiful arrangements of dual solos, passed melodies, powerful dynamics and string texture. Although the audience was quick to applaud after the movements (though one should wait until the entire piece is completed), the did not clap after Ravel’s third movement, “Tres lent,” as not to disrupt the calming peace with which the movement filled the Chapel.
The quartet exemplified magnificent musicianship. Ironically, the music was not the most affecting element of the event. The “Presentation of Playing for Peace,” serving as an interlude between the pieces, clearly took center stage of the performance. The quartet’s director, Lenny Matczynski, explained their mission: to go to conflict countries and assimilate students on opposite sides of conflicts into musical groups. It is a strategy used to promote communication between youth in conflict zones.
Why chamber music? Matczynski said that chamber music, unlike orchestral music, relies solely on interpersonal communication—it is a highly democratic form of music. To prove this, he had the quartet play excerpts revealing the importance of cues, solos and intonation.
Cues foster the significance of communication and oneness; solos require musicians to listen to each other and watch; intonation reflects the importance of not just listening, but adjusting. Communication, oneness, listening, watching and adjusting are all central to alleviating conflict and promoting peace, according to Matczynski.
Each member of the quartet then talked briefly of his or her more poignant experiences while playing for peace. The stories left some with wet eyes, some with dear smiles and all were left hopeful.
The Apple Hill Chamber Players personify the arts as tools for progress. As both literal and figurative instruments of peace, they graced Bates’ Chapel with unbounded chords of concord.
Matczynski, a musicians who has performed all over the world, said he’s taught at the Apple Hill Center’s summer music program since the 1980s.
He also served for decades as executive director of Emmanuel Music in Boston, which, according to its Web site, was founded in 1970 to enrich community culture in the area, and teaches part-time at The Boston Conservatory.
He is married to fellow violist Mary Ruth Ray, chairman of the music department at Brandeis University.
“I love Apple Hill,” Matczynski said, and explained that he was ready for a professional shift. But when asked what he might change about the center, he responded, “There’s nothing to change.”
If anything, he said, he’d like to continue to spread the word about Apple Hill, locally and abroad.
Founded in the 1970s, the Apple Hill center offers concerts and teaches workshops to people hailing from the inner cities of America to the far-reaches of the globe, according to Alfrieda “Dita” J. Englund, president of the center’s board of trustees.
Englund said chamber music has the capacity to ease even the deepest cultural conflicts.
“Music has a transformative power to bring people together,” she said, describing participants who have ranged from Israelis and Palestinians to representatives of the many faces of strife in Ireland.
“They become friends,” she said, “and then all the issues break down.”
Both Stumacher and Matczynski also emphasized the egalitarian qualities of chamber music, which is performed by smaller ensembles without a conductor.
“It’s some of the most profoundly expressive art that our culture has ever produced,” Stumacher said. “Everyone has… equal responsibility. That’s what chamber music is all about.
When he assumes his new position, Matczynski said he’ll split his time between the Nelson area and Boston—where he’ll continue to teach at the conservatory.
Meanwhile, both Englund and Stumacher said they’re confident in Matczynski’s abilities to take the center’s reins.
“Lenny is so well acquainted with the Apple Hill philosophy,” Englund said.
“He’s in the position to tap into the energy and the spirit of the coming generation,” Stumacher added.
“I think he has an excellent chance to sustain Apple Hill,” he said, “and help it survive and thrive.”
Download a PDF of this article