Full time criers, and our Duluth tour

Our trip to Duluth was probably one of our most successful trips to a new town we've ever had! We flew over for two nights only- played in a performance class at University of Minnesota Duluth Music Department, then got to listen to their awesome unconducted string orchestra, and ended the day with a concert in Weber Music Hall- a very delightful hall with warm, flattering acoustics. We stayed the nights with some generous friends, and about half of us stayed with the Dotys (Karl's parents) who hosted us with the best of bedding, dining, and....... their Sauna! ____

Ever since I got back from Europe on September 21st we've been working 'round the clock non-stop. There were a few moments there where I almost forgot A Far Cry was not a full time orchestra! To be exact, just so you understand what I'm talking about, we've been working 9 out of these past 10 weeks strait. Yeah, ok, with one week off in the middle (in which all of us tried to do EVERYTHING else we'd been procrastinating...)

Hard work (and complaining) aside, it took me talking to a friend who lives on the other side of the Atlantic to realize that during this time we have played two Boston cycles of concerts, went on two tours, and recorded two CDs! Wow, that is really a lot. I can't believe we made it, but we did. I must say I am very proud of us to have done all this, and in such little time...

It's been a pleasure sharing our work with all of you: our Boston friends, our Montpelier VT dedicated audiences, friends in Milton and in Quincy, our new friends in Duluth MN; our soloists Karen, Hyunah, Humanwine and David, and our wind players who've joined us for the recording with David; our recording honorary crier Jesse and our producers Don, Terry and Roger; organizations we've worked with such as Bikes not Bombs, the MSPCC, Axiom Gallery, NEC, ENC, Longy, the English High School... So many generous creative and warm people who've shared their time and talents with us! Thank you!

Now we finally have some time to wind down, do some other things, see some other people (like our families and our other friends), maybe play in other groups or focus on our own playing for a while, as well as get things ready behind the scenes for our next cycles in the spring, and our 3rd season of '09-10'. Please keep in touch with us over the winter, and stay warm, wherever you are. Best wishes!

Finishing up "Fabric"

We just played three concerts in three days - first, our Jamaica Plain debut at the English High School was a great event. Representatives from The Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (MSPCC) and Bikes Not Bombs spoke eloquently and passionately about their organizations, and A Far Cry donated 100% of ticket revenue to the two wonderful area non-profits. Next, we returned to Pickman Hall at the Longy School of Music in Cambridge. A wonderful acoustic and an enthusiastic audience greeted A Far Cry, as we were joined by clarinetist David Singer in concert for the first time. We performed Copland's Clarinet Concerto again yesterday at St. Paul's Church in Brookline, and it is really cooking! Which is a good thing, since David and A Far Cry are bringing the Copland to the recording studio later today to finish up a CD of clarinet concertos. Robert Aldridge's Clarinet Concerto, a world premiere recording of a piece written specifically for David Singer, is already "in the can"!

Did you hear A Far Cry over the last couple of days? Please leave a comment to let us know what you thought!

Strings Magazine

Strings Magazine is one of the premiere magazines for stringed instrument players, makers, and enthusiasts in the United States, and we've caught their attention. Here's a short piece on A Far Cry's recently-established partnership with New England Conservatory. The Strings article slightly overstates the partnership (we're traveling, recording, and establishing a home in Jamaica Plain on our own) but the publicity is wonderful and greatly appreciated! The last sentence is the best: A Far Cry is the subject of an upcoming feature in Strings magazine.

Criers at the Axiom Gallery Thursday

A Far Cry has just confirmed with Heidi Kayser (Director at the Axiom Gallery, which is an art gallery that is adjacently attached to the Green Street T-station) for Sharon, Courtenay and I (Jae) to play there free for all commuters & bystanders from 5:15pm-6:00pm tomorrow. It is to mainly advertise for our benefit concert on the 7th of November to help Bike Not Bombs and Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (MSPCC), two outstanding non-profits we're partnering with to further our case in creating social harmony, right here in JP! Axiom is also a collective that features emerging artists in new media that's been getting a lot of attention since its reopening in 2007. Check out their website here: www.axiomart.org

They just began a new exhibition starting last Friday by Andrew Neumann, so we hope to attract a few of those commuter heading in/out of the T around that time who'd stop into check out the new exhibit and to find out more about our benefit concert. If you find yourself riding the Orange Line through Jamaica Plain tomorrow, please stop in and say hello!

First Cycle is in the books!

Last night A Far Cry made its Jordan Hall debut. What a thrill and an honor to play in such a glorious space! Lots of stories from the Criers' perspectives will be showing up soon, but for now we want to hear from you! Were you at the concert? Please leave us a comment with your impressions.

Vermont Thank You

A Far Cry has returned from its fourth trip to Vermont, where we played two concerts with Capital City Concerts. We played a number of pieces with flutist Karen Kevra, which is always a pleasure. We also had the great honor of performing with Hyunah Yu, a gifted soprano I have admired since I was a freshman at the Peabody Conservatory, where Hyunah was at the time completing an Artist Diploma. The Montpelier audience was, as always, fantastic. Thank you, Vermont!

please stand up!

Just imagine:
A classical music concert, where the musicians play in their everyday clothes.
Where the audience STANDS UP.
Where people clap when they feel like it.
Where people talk if they want to.
Where everyone feels free to be themselves...

I have dreamt of this imaginary concert for years. And I was thinking- we stand up when we perform because we feel that the energy we have is so much more powerful when we stand. You know what I mean? Just try to imagine a rock band sitting down... haha... hm... But when the audience stands up, the potential energy is so much more powerful, and everyone feels it immediately.

This being said, I never quite understood how I will make this concert happen-
What if people standing up will block the view of the ones who'd want to sit down?
What if people who wanted to listen would be bothered by those chatting?
What if the musicians seemed as if they were disrespecting the event?
And tonight I finally realized- wait a minute, these things happen in almost every concert that is not classical, and the world keeps on turning...
___

Well, tonight my dream came true.

Holly and M@ and their band Humanwine hosted us in concert in Allston. They are both very inspiring people, who have been friends with A Far Cry for quite a long time, since they met our very own Ashley and Courtenay, who ended up playing with their band. And not only are they loving and giving people, their music is extremely meaningful, personal and creative. Tonight they shared a warehouse with the band What time is it Mr. Fox? and with us in a very special event.

By the end of the show we joined Humanwine and played along with them, but beforehand we played a full 'set' of our own. And you know what? we played Mozart, Muffat, Britten and Bartok, and people listened standing up, everyone could see us and hear us, and it felt so right. And the playing, we felt so comfortable that we allowed ourselves to enter a new phase with our playing, a feeling I hope we will carry with us in the future to many more concerts and places. Afterwards playing with Humanwine felt so good, getting a bit out of our comfort zone, making new music on the spot, listening, rocking...

So I am writing this in thanks to Holly and M@ who invited us to play in their show, in thanks to Ashley and Court who made this collaboration happen and taught us all the songs, and in thanks to the beautiful crowd who came out today in the rain and listened to us standing up. Thank you for making my dream come true.

Thank You Kneisel Hall (& Blue Hill)!

Blue Hill, Maine is a very, very special spot on earth. It situates right on the rugged northern Atlantic coast but yet its warm and soft edges of the landscape give it that essential blend of green character. And on these rolling hills that stretch out to the ocean, Franz Kneisel, who then was the founder and Primarius of the Kneisel Quartet, the first professional string quartet in the US, started bringing up his colleagues and students in the summer of 1902, and laid down the roots of chamber music that Kneisel Hall was founded on (Find out more about Kneisel Hall's history).

It's especially remarkable personally, because this is the grounds where I myself have learned to love so much of the great works of chamber music, but moreover, the very place where I've seen friends come here as young artisans, then each find one's own ways of blossoming into an artist of his/her unique voice. It's a spirit that is distinct & teaches one to listen and execute music in such a way that it is the very oxygen that one breathes. Over the years, this very place has become my home in the summers, during the years between turmoil & elation, providing that need of a home base, a place where I can always come back to smell the music that had been aging the wood inside the concert hall.

So stemming from that previous history, it was quite an occasion to bring A Far Cry to Kneisel for a second year. For us, these woods provided the solace that consoled our everyday fears and fortified our convictions in ways that could only be measured in retrospect. We played two sold out concerts to one of the most enthusiastic audiences we've had the pleasure of coming in contact with & took a few more days to work on our internal structure, solidifying our mission.

What is most intriguing however, about the energy that Blue Hill has are: the clear, flaring stars that protrude out of the vast sky, like gem stones that light up a dark cave; the fresh water ponds, which are essentially lakes, that one can dive from its cliffs to cool off on a 90 degree day; the soft shell lobsters that are the meatiest & most delicious of all the creatures that is available to us from the sea.

The week with the Criers has been a memorable time to hone our energies and find ourselves together, experiencing all that is cherished in life as musicians on a small, but precious scale. The 2 people who love us most, Ellen Werner & Seymour Lipkin, the bright beacons of Kneisel Hall, keep bringing us back to be a part of this amazing energy, and we always end up gazing at them in sheer gratitude. Thank you Kneisel Hall & everyone who had come out to hear us in concerts and have given so many wonderful applause & praise in return. The Criers hope to return soon, and no matter what happens, I know I will, even if I can't eat any more lobsters in my young cosmic age.

The Bay Taper and Classical Rev

Bill Swerbo, who writes the excellent blog baytaper, has a couple of posts which you should really go check out. First, Bill has a recent post about A Far Cry's recent San Francisco performance here. The new concert photos which are starting to be sprinkled around this website can also be seen there, as Bill is not only a writer, but also a talented photographer. But wait, there's more! Bill also recorded our concert, and you can hear our San Francisco performance of Corelli's Concerto Grosso in F on his website as well.

The baytaper also recently wrote up one of the weekly music parties of Classical Revolution. The "revolutionaries" invited A Far Cry to come sight-read with them when we were in town, and it was one of the highlights of the tour, by far. Classical Rev, in addition to putting on chamber music concerts with core members, holds a weekly classical music jam session at different bars and cafes in the Mission. There's nothing like being cheered on by a crowd of random onlookers as you fearlessly attack some fearsome Mendelssohn passagework, sight-unseen. Can a Boston Classical Revolution be far off? How could it not?

Song and Dance

We will be performing a new program, "Song and Dance," in Montpelier and Weston, Vermont later this month. Despite the fact that it shares both the Corelli and the Grieg with our "ensembleENSEMBLE" program, it has its own very different feel that I really love. As the title might give away, the program features music for strings inspired by both song and dance. Mozart's Divertimento #3 in F starts the concert with a festive, welcoming note. Mozart is the great master of the human voice, and the Divertimento is saturated with hummable tunes. Next, we turn to Benjamin Britten, who wrote his "Simple Symphony" at the ripe old age of 20, based on pieces he wrote even earlier. Less simple than you might think, the Britten combines baroque dance forms ("Boisterous Bourree" and "Sentimental Sarabande" are two of the movements) with melodies reminiscent of English folk songs. The second half of the program is all dance, combining the quintessential baroque dance suite - the Corelli Concerto Grosso op. 6 #9 - and the classic baroque-romantic fusion of Grieg's Holberg Suite. This is a program of contrasts, beautiful melodies, and foot-tapping rhythms, perfect for the summer!