06/10/2026
Meet our second NH Gives match donor: Matt Gillman — Proud Apple Hill participant since 1975
“Not everyone gets to do the thing they most love until the last moment of their lives. But that happened with my dad, Bob Gillman, in 2003 at Apple Hill. He was 84, playing a Haydn trio with a whiz 11-year-old violinist and a cellist of some in-between age. In the audience, I noticed that midway through the movement, his playing became rough around the edges, unusual for this refined pianist. When he awkwardly repaired afterwards to the winter rehearsal room, from my medical background I knew he was having a stroke. Three days later he was dead. That event was maximally harrowing in the moment, remarkably poetic in the long run.
Why was my dad at Apple Hill? I first attended in 1975, and because my weeks there had been peak experiences, for the next decade-and-a-half I harried, cajoled, wheedled, and coaxed him to attend with me. He finally relented in 1990, and then he became an annual Apple Hill fixture for the following 13 years. It was a highlight of his year. Every fall he would discuss what he might want to play with me or others the following summer. Then he would practice assiduously, like a delighted but somewhat apprehensive kid, in the months leading up to the first day.
He and I, a violinist, would play a piece together each year we attended together. I have some pretty sweet memories of making music with my dad; the Mendelssohn d minor piano trio is stuck in my memory banks for well-matched players, a great coach, and spine tingles. After my dad’s death, my family and I asked that mourners make donations to Apple Hill. We raised enough to endow a piano for one of the practice rooms. He would’ve loved that.”
Read the rest of Matt’s incredible story on our NH Gives webpage. https://www.nhgives.org/organization/Apple-Hill-Center-For-Chamber-Music
NH Gives continues until 5 pm today! We’re halfway there! Thank you to everyone who has given! When we reach $10,000 in donations, Matt Gillman and Dan Goodman are going to honor your support and contribute $10,000, bringing our fundraising total to $20,000! Thank you, Matt and Dan!!! And thank you all for being part of this special opportunity!
