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!
Visiting Point Counterpoint
I visited one of my dear friends, violinist Julia Cash at Point Counterpoint music camp on the shores of Lake Dunmore, Vermont last week, where she is in her second summer of performing & teaching teenage musicians. A gorgeous spot on the Lake right at the foothills of the Green Mountains, the camp reminded me of a few summer camps I'd been a part of in my youth, with the bunkbeds, the practice cabins & right down to the family style communal dining. Part of the reason I was passing through also was to give a chamber orchestra workshop for the campers here who spend these summer weeks learning chamber music & taking lessons, and I showed up armed with my laptop, a projector and parts to Mozart's Divertimentos & the Holberg Suite by Edvard Grieg. I've been doing these sort of Power-point type presentations for a couple of different organizations starting this past fall, not only talking about A Far Cry and showing on & off-line examples of how we operate and manage, but showing our performance videos as a built in component to these workshops. (I mean, I spend enough hours editing and syncing these videos with high quality audio, I always end up wanting to show them to the public, especially to those who've never seen or heard of us..)
I think most of the kids at PCP really enjoyed the presentation. Quite frankly I was a little daunted having to lead a performance portion after the talk for these 50 or so youngsters, as more than half of them were sight reading the pieces I had brought with me. However to my surprise, they did so well!! A lot of them were able to follow the more complicated directions of dynamics & phrasings of these pieces by the 2nd and 3rd reading as I was thoroughly impressed. I spent my free time during these couple of days kayaking & swimming around Lake Dunmore & making new friends with the faculty and staff at PCP. It's nice to inspire young and raw talent, as I remember when I was at their stage, how much I was ready to soak in the great music & experiences that would come my way. And I have to say that I'm gladly and consistently surprised that so many kids I encounter are not only interested in classical music but have a genuine appreciation for it...It really is exciting to see. At our concerts, we definitely see a few more youngsters than some of the other venues around town, but still the majority of our loyal fans are the mature audiences. So I'm even more excited to have met these kids and plant the seed. I hope they tell all their friends, their siblings, cousins and their teachers at school and will come see one of our Jordan Hall concerts this next season.
Georgia Public Radio
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!
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)
Feel like some bluegrass?
Check out some great acoustic music on Joe Walsh's new album Saturday Night Waltz cdbaby.com/cd/walshjoe. Joe is an awesome musician, and the new mandolinist for the Gibson Brothers. A Far Cry's own bassist Karl Doty can be heard laying it down on the album, and also on an upcoming album with Heather Masse, whom you might have heard many times on A Prairie Home Companion.
Kathryn J Allwine Bacasmot
...is my kind of musicologist. She has one of the best blogs on music I know, writes the best program notes, and even plugs the best music, right there on her blog. Right back at you, Kathryn!
Summer Chamber Music in Maine & New Hampshire
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/
Summer Crier concerts
During the summer, A Far Cry is like an accordian. The Criers start in Boston, spread out all over the world, come back together at the end of June, spread out again, and then regather in August in Maine. Right now a bunch of us are playing concerts with various other groups, so if you miss seeing some Far-Cry style music making, you can get a little dose here and there. Tomorrow, many of us are performing with the Harvard Baroque Orchestra on a BEMF Fringe concert. Saturday, June 13, 12:30 pm, at First Church in Boston, on 66 Marlborough St. It's an exciting, free, one-hour show! Next week, On June 15, 18, and 19th at 8 PM, in Jordan and Williams Hall, I'll be performing with the Callithumpian Consort as part of NEC's SICPP. Each of these concerts will definitely titillate and satisfy your contemporary music senses. More info at www.newenglandconservatory.edu. (Each of these concerts is free.)
Stay tuned here for other Crier's summer concerts, and if you come to some, please make sure to say hello!
