Apple Hill Concert Barn

The Louise Shonk Kelley Concert Barn is the heart of the Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music. Located on a historic 100-acre farmstead, this circa 1790 structure is the quintessential English style barn. This form dominated New England’s landscape through the mid-19th century. The English Barn archetype is deeply intertwined with the region’s agricultural roots, featuring large sliding doors on a three-bay side wall. This form derived from its original agricultural use, where the center bay was a wheat threshing floor, with livestock and equipment to either side. Today the Concert Barn at Apple Hill is celebrated for its rustic, intimate atmosphere with superb acoustics uniquely suited to professional chamber music instruments. The sliding barn doors allow summertime open air viewing for an overflow outdoor audience. ARCove’s deep energy retrofit entailed an enhanced thermal building envelope, high efficiency heat pump HVAC system, and structural repairs to the hand-hewn timber framing and field stone foundations. These renovations transformed the previously unheated space into an operationally efficient and comfortable year-round venue for all to enjoy the harmonies of acoustic chamber music.