Guest Crier Hye-Jin Kim was recently announced a winner of the Concert Artists Guild 2009 International Competition! This is a huge deal for any young classical musician, as the prizes include professional management, a New York City recital, and plenty of exposure and opportunity. Congratulations Hye-Jin!
(Hye-Jin will be joining A Far Cry in Schnittke's Concerto Grosso No. 1 this weekend in Jordan Hall and Jamaica Plain)
Maine, we're coming back! On Wednesday we'll hop in cars and wagons with instruments, woks, grills, and giant post-it pads to do our 3rd-Annual Kneisel Hall Performance/Cookout/Planning Retreat. We're getting better at this every summer, and will balance our rehearsing and playing and cooking and meetings with some fun in the sun and water. Also, for the first time ever, our fabulous Board and our new....(yes, it's a newsflash!) Administrative Director will join us for a portion of the time. This year we're even extending the trip with a concert in Weston, VT, another favorite playing/retreating spot! Love it so much and am so grateful to be heading up soon!
Seems like we're on a good run, radio-wise! A friend of a friend liked Debut, one thing led to another, and the next thing we know, Georgia Public Radio's Midday Music is playing us alongside the likes of Vladimir Ashkenazy and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Cool!
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!
Wow, what an intense but wonderful concert week! But this blog post is about something else entirely...
This month, The Music Box (our JP rehearsal storefront) has been awash in a riot of color and character. Artist Annie Weatherwax has graced our walls with her work - larger-than-life portraits of faces that reflect a whole spectrum of emotions and expressions. Now we're returning the favor by setting up gallery hours on Saturdays where her art will be able to be viewed on its own - and purchased, should you get the urge!
Saturday, May 30, 1-5pm
Come by and chat with us and enjoy this beautiful work! http://www.annieweatherwax.com/
The picture is from First Thursday, a Jamaica Plain-based event featuring local art and hospitality all along Centre and South Street!
This morning I awoke from my fitful slumber to hear a familiar tune on the radio alarm. A Far Cry was playing Tchaikovsky's Serenade on WGBH! I listened to the whole thing and didn't even get a chance to shower before leaving for work at 8am. The program will be repeating at 10am, so from 10:28-11:00 they will play the entire Serenade from our Debut album! "Sweet"
You can check out today's schedule here. Hear it on the radio at 89.7 in Boston or online.
-Frank
A Far Cry is pleased to announce that Meredith Treaster is a winner of our first Young Artist Competition. As a winner, Meredith will join the viola section of A Far Cry in concert later this month. Buy tickets to see Meredith at Jordan Hall!
Meredith Treaster, violist, is a student at the Walnut Hill School in Natick, Massachusetts. She has attended the Aspen Music Festival for several years on both violin and viola. Meredith has been the principal violist of the New Mexico All-State Symphony, the Aspen Concert Orchestra and the Youth Philharmonic Orchestra at New England Conservatory. As part of Walnut Hill’s annual gala, she performed Brahms Piano Quintet at Carnegie Hall last Spring. She currently studies viola with Michael Zaretsky of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Meredith will be entering the Juilliard School this Fall as a student of Masao Kawasaki.
A Far Cry is proud to announce that Andrew Dezmelyk, a violin student at the New England Conservatory Preparatory School, will be joining A Far Cry in concert later this month, as a winner of A Far Cry's Young Artist Competition. Buy tickets to see Andrew perform in Jordan Hall!
Fourteen-year-old violinist Andrew Dezmelyk is currently in his 4th year at New England Conservatory Preparatory School. He is a member of the Youth Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Steven Karidoyanes. He loves chamber music, and has played in a string quartet as well as in a unique duo with a harpist. He has also enjoyed playing in the 10:00 Baroque Chamber Orchestra with Aldo Abreu. So, when given the opportunity to play with A Far Cry, he quickly jumped at the chance.
He is very grateful to his teachers, Maciek and Jorunn Kaczmarek, for their patience and dedication.
A 9th grader, his favorite academic subjects are writing, geometry and advanced algebra.
When not practicing, he can be found trying his hand at composing. He creates stop-motion animation synchronized to music by his favorite composers, such as Dvorák, Prokofiev, Saint-Saëns, and Beethoven. He has been known to build extensive Rube Goldberg contraptions and draw comic strips. If there's snow on the ground, sledding is his forte.
Well, it's been a long time coming, since the 3 days we recorded this album in November of last year, and it's finally coming out! It really has been a labor of love in post production these last 3 months, from all the members in A Far Cry to our producers Terry King & Roger Tapping, but most especially without our esteemed colleague and engineer, Jesse Lewis, it just wouldn't have been possible. Our graphic designer extraordinaire, Leslie Jonas outdid herself once again by putting together a beautiful cover for the CD, which seems to portray us rather perfectly. The album will be available on CD to purchase on April 30th not only from this website, but also on CD Baby. Their website will also offer the album in the digital format in downloadable mp3s, along with on iTunes, Amazon & Instant Encore. Hopefully we'll always have a stack of CD's with us to sell at all of our future shows, and if you can't possibly wait until then, I suppose you can stop by at our space in Jamaica Plain to pick up a copy also (but please bring exact change). The works featured on the album are Osvaldo Golijov's Last Round (1996) for Double String Quartet & Bass, George Frideric Handel's G Minor Concerto Grosso, op.6 no.6, and Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky's passionate Serenade for Strings in C Major, op.48. We really hope there will be something for everyone in this collection of tunes. Counting down the days!!
The A Far Cry family has grown! Tony Flynt is the fantastic bassist who joined A Far Cry for our last concert cycle. We've always loved Tony's playing, and now he's joining Karl to create a fearsome twosome down in the low register.
