Described as “Boston’s popular, brilliant, conductorless chamber orchestra” by WBUR, A Far Cry is known for its innovative and compelling programs, as well as the democratic process that drives that programming. A Far Cry was founded in 2007 on the belief that every voice deserves to be heard; so instead of one artistic director, the collective of musicians (“Criers”) curate and submit program ideas inspired by individual curiosities, the greater musical community, and what is happening in the world at large. The result is a dynamic representation of music and collaborators across genres and backgrounds.

The Criers believe it’s this core value and sense of curiosity and mission that led the Boston Globe to say that “even though A Far Cry has decisively established itself as a mainstay of the Boston musical community, something about it feels perpetually fresh with every performance.” A Far Cry has risen to the top of Billboard’s Traditional Classical Chart, been named Boston’s best classical ensemble by The Improper Bostonian, and garnered two Grammy nominations. In 2023, in a testament to the group’s stellar collaborative nature, all three albums the group was involved with were nominated for a Grammy Award.

AFC’s 2023-24 season continues the group’s tradition of musical storytelling. In each of the nine programs – curated by a different Crier (and voted on by all 17) – A Far Cry seeks to do its part in reinforcing the idea of a “world that listens.” Composers range from Bach, Beethoven and Mozart, to Shelley Washington, Paul Wiancko, Vijay Iyer, Anna Thorvaldsdottir, and a newly commissioned work by Jungyoon Wie. The orchestra’s subscription series includes five programs at New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall, and four chamber music concerts at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Jamaica Plain. Additionally, A Far Cry continues its residency at Longy School of Music with three concerts, and performs Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings on the Celebrity Series of Boston in February. In March, the group takes its “At Odds” program on the road with a performance at NYC’s Merkin Hall as part of AFC’s 2023-24 residency at the Kaufman Music Center.

A Far Cry’s omnivorous approach has led to collaborations with artists such as Yo-Yo Ma, Simone Dinnerstein, Awadagin Pratt, Roomful of Teeth, the Silk Road Ensemble, Vijay Iyer, and David Krakauer, to name a few. Highlights include two new commissioning projects: Philip Glass’ third piano concerto with soloist Simone Dinnerstein, and The Blue Hour, “a gorgeous and remarkably unified work” (Washington Post) written by a collaborative of five leading female composers – Rachel Grimes, Angélica Negrón, Shara Nova, Caroline Shaw, and Sarah Kirkland Snider. The Blue Hour was released in partnership with New Amsterdam and Nonesuch Records, and was named a Top 10 Album of the year by NPR.

A Far Cry’s Crier Records launched auspiciously in 2014 with the Grammy-nominated album Dreams and Prayers. The label’s second release, Law of Mosaics, was included on many top 10 lists, notably from The New Yorker’s Alex Ross and WQXR, which named A Far Cry as one of the “Imagination-Grabbing, Trailblazing Artists of 2014.” The 2018 release, Visions and Variations, received two Grammy nominations, including one for Best Chamber Music Performance. In 2023, Crier Records released Mehmet Ali Sanlıkol’s A Gentleman of Istanbul, which the group commissioned in 2017. San Francisco Classical Voice called the work a “dazzling multicultural symphony.” The album received a 2023 Grammy Nomination for Best Engineered Album (Classical).

The Criers are proud to call Boston home, and maintain strong roots in the city, rehearsing at their storefront music center in Jamaica Plain. The group recently celebrated the conclusion of a 10-year residency at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Collaborating with local students through educational partnerships with the New England Conservatory, Longy School of Music, and Project STEP, A Far Cry aims to pass on the spirit of collaboratively-empowered music to the next generation.

Called “America’s most wired composer” by The Los Angeles Times and a “musical visionary” by The New York Times, Tod Machover is recognized as one of the most innovative composers active today, praised for creating music that breaks traditional artistic and cultural boundaries and for developing technologies that expand music’s potential for everyone, from celebrated virtuosi to musicians of all abilities. Machover studied with Elliott Carter and Roger Sessions at The Juilliard School and was the first Director of Musical Research at Pierre Boulez’s IRCAM in Paris. He is Academic Head of the MIT Media Lab, where he is also Muriel R. Cooper Professor of Music and Media and Director of the Opera of the Future Group. Machover is also Visiting Professor of Composition at the Royal Academy of Music in London.

Tod Machover’s compositions have been commissioned and performed by many of the world’s most prestigious ensembles and soloists, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble InterContemporain, Lucerne Festival, Edinburgh International Festival, Ensemble Modern, BBC Scottish Symphony, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Boston Pops, Houston Grand Opera, Bunkamura (Tokyo), Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Centre Georges Pompidou, Carnegie Hall, the Lucerne Festival, Ars Electronica, Casa da Musica (Porto), American Composers Orchestra, Tokyo String Quartet, Kronos Quartet, Ying Quartet, Yo-Yo Ma, Joshua Bell, Matt Haimovitz, Renée Fleming, Joyce Di Donato, and many more. His work has been awarded numerous prizes and honors, by such organizations as the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Fromm and Koussevitzky Foundations, the National Endowment for the Arts, the German Culture Ministry, and the French Culture Ministry, which named him a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. He was the first recipient of the Arts Advocacy Award from the Kennedy Center’s National Committee of the Performing Arts in 2013, and he was honored as Musical America’s 2016 Composer of the Year.