'Best of Boston' ensemble, A Far Cry, to open DPU Guest Artist Series
With classes under way and ensemble auditions now completed, DePauw University music students are hard at work in rehearsals. While they're mastering Mozart, the School of Music has planned a three-day guest-artist residency with the Grammy-nominated ensemble A Far Cry.
The Sept. 9--11 residency will culminate in the first Green Guest Artist Concert of the season at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 11 in Kresge Auditorium, located within the Judson and Joyce Green Center for the Performing Arts at DePauw.
Operating at what is considered the forefront of a new generation in classical music, the 16-member, self-conducted chamber orchestra "brims with personality," according to The New York Times. The ensemble's latest album, Law of Mosaics from its in-house label Crier Records, earned a place on The New Yorker's Top-10 list of "Notable Recordings of 2014" and praise from WQXR's Q2 Music, which named the group one of its "Imagination-Grabbing, Trailblazing Artists of 2014."
Among the qualities that make this ensemble unique are not just its collaborations with other emerging artists, expanding the boundaries of orchestral repertoire or experimentation with ways music is prepared and performed, but also the innovative process by which decisions are made creatively and collectively within the group, which uses a rotating leadership.
Boston Magazine recently recognized the tightly knit collective's contributions to the region with its 2015 "Best of Boston" Award for Best Classical Music Ensemble, describing it as a "thoroughly modern, century-spanning, globe-trotting sonic adventure."
For the Friday program at DePauw, The Criers (as they are known to fans), plan to envelope listeners in the collective spirit of collaboratively empowered music through their "TransAmericana" program, imagined as a journey through the American continents from Philip Glass's New York to Alberto Ginastera's Argentina, crossing the borders of four distinct musical cultures along the way.
Individual tickets to Green Guest Artist Concerts are $10 in advance and $15 on the day of the event.
Thanks to season sponsors Judson and Joyce Green, tickets for seniors, children and all students are free. All-access season passes will continue to be available for sale through Sept. 10, the day before the Green Concert. For more information and online purchases, visit www.depauw.edu/music/tickets. On weekdays persons may stop by the Green Center Main Office to obtain passes or tickets in person. The GCPA box office will also be open one hour prior to the Friday concert.