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Concerts

Free Music Popping Up Near You!

That's right! Huge thanks to the Free For All Concert Fund, for awarding us a generous $25,000 grant to expand our presence in the Jamaica Plain Community! We are using every last drop of this grant to bring you more free music! This season, we will be offering:

1) A series of "Pop-Up" chamber concerts throughout everyday spaces in JP 2) Several larger special events involving the entire ensemble!

Thank you so much to Free For All for their wonderful generosity!

We're looking forward to seeing you at these events. Follow us on facebook or twitter for live updates from the events, pics, and maybe even a video or two!

Friday, September 16, 2011: 6-7 pm Free Pop-Up Chamber Concerts in the Community Sponsored by Free For All Concert Fund El Oriental de Cuba (416 Centre St.) & Center Street Park Jamaica Plain

Saturday, September 17, 2011: 6-7 pm Free Pop-Up Concerts in the Community Sponsored by Free For All Concert Fund Tacos el Charro (349 Centre St.) & Stop and Shop, Centre St. Jamaica Plain

Monday, September 19, 2011: 7:00-9:00PM Open Rehearsal A Far Cry Storefront Space 146A South Street, Jamaica Plain, MA

October 8, 2011: 4-6PM Free Concert with the Full Ensemble! St. John's Episcopal Church 1 Roanoke Ave, Jamaica Plain, MA

December 15, 2011: 6:30-8:30PM Annual Holiday Concert and Party Bonanza! A Far Cry Space 146A South Street, Jamaica Plain, MA

The End of Lunacy

Well, the Criers can take a deep breath. One-third of Season 3 is in the books, and I think we are all looking forward to a couple days of recovery. Out biggest audiences yet seemed to really take to what was, musically, one of our "crunchiest" programs ever. Christopher Hossfeld's concerto GROSSO received a well-deserved standing ovation for its Jordan Hall world premiere. An incredibly diverse crowd very nearly filled the church at our first Saturday-afternoon Jamaica Plain family-and-community concert - and lept to its feet after the INTENSE Schnittke. I love Beethoven symphonies as much as anyone on Earth, and who knows - maybe some day A Far Cry will do the BSO thing and perform the cycle self-conducted. But the one thing that I became absolutely convinced of this weekend, is that there's more than one way to generate excitement and attendance at classical music concerts. Warhorses are great, but people also want to be moved, and be moved by new, previously-undreamed-of experiences. As artists, the highest compliment that A Far Cry can receive is that we moved our listeners, and I was humbled and ecstatic to receive that compliment a number of times this weekend.

But enough from me - A Far Cry wants to hear from YOU. Were you at the concert(s)? Were you moved? Not moved? Almost-moved-but-with-thoughts-as-to-what-really-would-have-made-it-better? Leave a comment to this post, good or bad. Happy Crying!

Wonderful Weston

Some places just call you back. Ever since A Far Cry's first visit to Weston, Vermont last June, we have been plotting ways to return. There's something about southern Vermont - its aggressively-beautiful landscapes perhaps, or maybe the way residents come together at the drop of a hat despite the (to a city-dweller) less-than-neighborly distances between houses. Do people live here to get away from people (as it looks) or to get together with people (as it feels)? I think perhaps that a combination of the two is closest to reality, and perhaps that is why A Far Cry feels such closeness with the place. Stubborn individuality tempered by awareness for the good of the group - or is it stubborn individuality FOR the good of the group? You may think I'm reaching, but I suspect the forces holding A Far Cry together are very much related to the forces holding together spread-out communities around the world. Anyway... A Far Cry was absolutely delighted to perform at The Church on the Hill in Weston on Sunday afternoon. If any Weston-ers are reading this, I hope you'll leave a comment here on the blog to let us know how you enjoyed the concert!

Oh - one little picture (more to come soon) of A Far Cry's other Weston performance, on Saturday night at The Inn At Weston... Alicia playing violin with the dinner-room pianist, in honor of Liza's birthday. What a scene! Alicia at the Inn

Performance Today

We just received word that NPR's Performance Today, with 1.2 million weekly listeners on 237 stations, will be featuring A Far Cry on Monday's broadcast! They will be playing our Simple Symphony (Benjamin Britten) from March 23 in Marathon, Florida. Also, on their website they call us "irreverent" which is fine by me, even if it's just one side of the A Far Cry coin. Thanks, Performance Today!

These Seeds become Trees

This Saturday is a moment all of A Far Cry has been waiting for ever since a thrilling, enchanting performance last fall in a semi-secret location with our favorite eco-anarchist punk rock band, HUMANWINE. That night, we joined the band on some of their songs and presented their audience with a little Mozart and Bartok, rocking out in our own way.

This Saturday, June 27, A Far Cry makes its debut at the Paradise Rock Club in Boston, where HUMANWINE presents "These Seeds Become Trees." This promises to be an unforgettable evening. HUMANWINE has encouraged its fans (and believe me....there are many across the country) to come in costume as characters of "Vinland" and those who come in character ("Aktorz") collectively create the Quilt of Vinland. Click "Continue Reading" below to learn about the characters.

HUMANWINE has been touring this year and developing this program. It is going to be awesome. Criers Ashley and Courtenay will also be providing vocals on this program! Will they be in costume too? Will more Criers be in costume? You'll have to come to find out.

6/27/09 Paradise Rock Club 967 Commonwealth Ave., Boston, MA 8pm doors/ 9PM Show. 18+ only. tickets solds at Paradise Box Office, Orpheum Box office, and livenation.com

www.humanwine.org The Aktorz play important parts in the 3-hour theatrical performance. Here's a description of some of the characters, including lyrics from HUMANWINE songs. These are taken from www.humanwine.org/aktorz.html

Not-Me Thief Appearance: A black skull cap and a black and white striped shirt, dark pants. A five O'Clock shadow helps secure the imagery for both make and female thieves, they are sexless. "They crawl from the mouth and then fall to the ground out of site, they burgle the heart of the child and fall them to sleep by feeding lies like a pill promising it's alright." - Wake Up! (HUMANWINE) They crawl in and out of the windows of the factories to slip the Not-Me Pill of Lies into the mouths of the cog populace whilst they sleep unknowingly receiving the "news of the day".

Hordes Appearance: A cloud of fists, knives, guns, tears, fearful and hateful memories and feelings. A tornado filled with TV's, riot police, magazines and fear-based propaganda. "As it feeds on your waste of flesh, haggard laughing all the way holding until the day. Hold yourself down the hill, you can barely see though the dead debris, it's a body. Bring in The Hordes who feed on your fear, your screams, so you start running. Will you ever stop feeding them?" - Fighting Naked (HUMANWINE) A swirling mass of fists and debris. It is still unknown exactly "how" they form but there is a simple tale that says...From the first feeling of FEAR or HATE came the first Horde. They started as a bunch of little swirls that have grown into a full fledged epidemic! After the first broadcast on NM (Not-Me) Radio This tornadoeaque being started making regular rounds through vinland sucking up that which it lives on, FEAR and HATE. There are two ways of dealing with Hordes when they come through, one can know they exist, yes, but also continue to do the daily and nightly tasks with no fear, to do this is to survive because they will continue by, the other method of dealing with Hordes is to FEAR that they might come (which calls them) and once they come to run and hide, which only leads to the consumption of the person and the growth of said Hordes.

Cog Appearance: Grey skin tone, their ears are wilting and falling off, gaunt, tired eyes with dark circles, a uni-suit (mechanic suits work great) also a number any old number above the front breast pocket and on the back. "Faces of the typical so sad are SAD ARE! Faceless are the typical SO SAD! " - Vin d'Humaine (HUMANWINE) "Trained under gun and programmed 'till empty A husk of human" - Vast the Olde World, Then Sails (HUMANWINE) Citizens of the major cities in Vinland. Armed with names like 01 and 578 these folks live to serve the Not-Me and have been convinced to serve since their birth by their parents who didn't know any better or were to scared to read the posters created by the YerYerOwns. Cogs are filler, fodder and something to be used until their inevitable doom in the factory fields. When finally promoted from the factory to the field Reapers are sent by the Not-Me to heard the promoted Cogs and bury them neck deep in the soil (this is a high honor to a Cog), the head remains above ground, the bottom portion of the body is only visible to the (mythical or are they) dwellers of the underground, the Enjoyeurs whose sky IS the ground of Vinland, when the Cog's particular "final task" is completed a Reaper is sent to decapitate them and they die. The body falls from The Enjoyeurs' "sky" and is then press into HUMANWINE. "

Summer Concert at the Music Box

On Sunday, May 21 (yep, that's tomorrow) Criers and friends will play an impromptu concert in The Music Box featuring the impossibly beautiful Brahms Sextet in G Major. We hope that this will turn into a summer tradition, so stay tuned for other Music Box events over the next couple months as we keep our home "warm" during the off season! Here's all the info about tomorrow's Summer Solstice String Sextet Spectacular...

Program (shorter than it looks)

Strauss: Sextet from "Capriccio" Bach: Ricercare a 6 from The Musical Offering Byrd: Fantazia Brahms: Sextet in G Major

Musicians:

Jae Young Cosmos Lee and Ben Rous, violins Sarah Darling and Stephanie Fong, violas Josh Packard and Clara Lee, cellos

Sundry details:

Sunday, June 21, 3 PM The Music Box 146A South Street Jamaica Plain, Boston

There will be a donation box to support the space - other than that, it's totally free!

Any questions, email Sarah or Jae (at afarcry.org)

Summer Chamber Music in Maine & New Hampshire

 mainefall.jpg Thank you to Megumi for getting the ball rolling on listing some upcoming summer concerts that involve members of A Far Cry! I'd like to extend the invitation to New Englander's to visit IMAI (the International Musical Arts Institute) for chamber music concerts Wed-Sun for all of July, beginning July 8th, in the little town of Fryeburg, Maine. World-renowned violinist Eric Rosenblith founded the Institute in 1997 and, since then, has been inviting professional musicians young and old from all over the world to Fryeburg to study and perform great works of chamber music in an intimate setting. I will be playing viola in the following performances (all concerts begin at 7:30pm):

  • Thursday, July 9th: Haydn's String Quartet in D Major, Op. 64, No. 5 “The Lark”
  • Friday, July 10th: Beethoven's String Trio "Serenade" in D, Op.8, and Schubert's Sonata "Arpeggione" in d minor for Viola and Piano, D.821
  • Thursday, July 16th: Schumann's String Quartet in a minor, Op. 41, No. 1, and Beethoven's String Quartet in C, Op. 59, No. 3

I'm thrilled to be playing works this summer by so many of the "greats" of chamber music, and hope to see some of you at the concerts. Be sure to please come find me and say hi! Tickets are available at the door, and more information can be found on IMAI's website at: http://home.earthlink.net/~imaifryeburg/