R.P. Hale, Concord

R.P. Hale is a multigenerational interdisciplinary visual artist, musician, craftsman, teacher and working astronomer who moved to New Hampshire from his native Arizona in 1982, and his entire career from the beginning has been that of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, ARTS and Mathematics). He has been involved with the State Council on the Arts since 1983 and is on every artist roster. As a visual artist, he is a master calligrapher, medical illustrator, a nationally renowned wood engraver and printmaker, Letterpress printer, gilder and maker of marbleized papers and fabrics. In the music field, he is a concert harpsichordist specializing in the early music of Mexico and is organist/minister of music at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Manchester, NH. As a craftsman, he started building harpsichords in 1976, performs his concerts on instruments he built, and as such he was the only harpsichord maker to be included in a Smithsonian Institute exhibit devoted to U.S. master instrument makers. R.P. received an Arts Council Fellowship in 1986 to build a replica Spanish-Mexican 1522 virginal-harpsichord that he still uses heavily for concerts and teaching. 

Growing up in Tucson in a Mexican family with a long history in arts and printing, R.P. grew up with both the arts and sciences. He took his degree in microbiology/organic chemistry at the University of Arizona, and taught scientific illustration and photography there before moving to Concord, NH. He has since taught music and astronomy at St. Paul’s School, where he was also Assistant Chapel Organist and Chapel woodcarver, and is Senior Educator at the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center in Concord. From 1980 to 2012 he was an instructor in traditional crafts, music, dance and history at the Augusta Heritage Center in Elkins, West Virginia, finishing there as Crafts Coordinator, and he runs workshops and residencies nationwide in his artistic fields, and traditional Mexican/Aztec cooking. He is a juried member of the League of NH Craftsmen in wood engraving/printmaking, and on the Juried Members Board there. He is currently engaged in research in archaeo-astronomy/Maya cultures and is planning a Ph.D. in that field.

R.P. lives in Concord with his wife Alice, and their daughter Alicia is carrying on some of the arts/crafts traditions and combining art with science in New York State.

Last updated: July 2, 2013