EXCLUSIVE: A Far Cry on NEC, GRAMMYs, 10th Anniversary Season & Still No Need for a Conductor

As A Far Cry founding member Megumi Stohs Lewis tells it, when the orchestra was created in 2007, several members were finishing up graduate degree programs at the New England Conservatory. Not all of the “Criers” are NEC alums, but the conservatory grounds proved to be a thoughtful gathering spot for most of the original members. Everyone, though, was interested in exploring chamber music, with many having played under Donald Palma in NEC's finely tuned chamber orchestra.

Inspired, then, by NEC faculty, various student ensembles and the overall atmosphere of collaboration there on campus, soon enough, A Far Cry would strike out on their own. The group played its first official concerts in May of 2007. Next, the original gang of 17 incorporated, replete with a board of directors, to begin their incredible, self-led voyage in earnest.

Nearly a decade later, on the record side, AFC has put out seven albums -- receiving a 2015 GRAMMY nomination (Best Chamber Music, Small Ensemble) for their first release, Dreams and Prayers, on their own label, Crier Records.

Performance-wise, the Criers still call Boston home, all the while notching hundreds of performances coast to coast and across the globe.

Meanwhile, their livestreamed concerts and YouTube archive have garnered hundreds of thousands of likes and views. At the forefront of a new, exciting paradigm for classical music, itself, A Far Cry continue to expand the ways in which it's prepared, performed and experienced.

And at the heart of that model is a firm commitment to community and education. With a rehearsal space and office storefront in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood, AFC remains in the public ear with a series of concerts at NEC's Jordan Hall and as the chamber orchestra in residence at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Fenway-Kenmore. Pedagogically, the Criers lead sectionals for NEC prep students, offering the undergrads their brand of real world coaching via the conservatory's entrepreneurial musicianship program.