Yeemz plays her cello like a guitar with A Far Cry this weekend

The Boston chamber orchestra A Far Cry is trying out a novel performance concept the weekend of Jan. 9 called "Amplified." The innovative group of Grammy-nominated musicians wants to reach new audiences by shaking up traditional ideas about music.

Founding member and violinist Jae Cosmos Lee said the new series presents popular contemporary music through a fresh lens with a casual, intimate vibe — kind of like MTV’s “Unplugged.”

“It was under the working title of ‘AFC Rocks,’ as in A Far Cry Rocks,” he said, “and after quite a few years in incubation we finally got to the finish line.”

AFC’s first guest collaborator embodies the project's spirit. At a rehearsal, Lee and other Far Cry string players worked through songs written by cellist Yi-Mei Templeman. She re-arranged about a dozen original tunes especially for the pair of inaugural concerts. The musicians batted around ideas as they shaped what will ultimately fill listeners ears at the shows.

“I wasn't aware — until I saw a video of her — that she actually strums the cello like guitar,” Lee said of Templeman. “She's developed her own style of playing which is very, very cool.”

Templeman is a classically-trained, New England Conservatory grad. As you’d expect, she plays her cello beautifully with a bow in the upright position. But she’s also created a signature sound — and an indie singer-songwriter alter-ego named Yeemz — by turning her instrument on its side.

Yeemz acknowledged her style of playing evokes a scene from the movie  “School of Rock” starring Jack Black. “People say that all the time,” she said with a laugh. "That’s my entire life now, apparently.”

Yeemz started playing cello as a fourth grader in Los Angeles public school. As she grew up, she also liked singing cover songs from her favorite artists while strumming a ukulele. But Yeemz left her ukelele behind when she went to college at NEC with her cello. “Maybe it was out of necessity that I turned it on its side,” she said.

At NEC, she performed with her classical group, Trio Gaia but also wrote and crafted poetic, emotionally bare folk songs. She said she felt nervous to share them, but a friend urged her to record in her Symphony Road apartment. He told her, “No one's just going to show up and make your music for you,” Yeemz recalled. “You have to figure it out yourself and take control of your songs.”

Inspired, she began self-releasing her sweet lyrics and expressive music through singles and videos.

“A lot of my songs have like 60 layers of cello just recorded in my bedroom, and that's a bit of a hassle to mix and engineer,” Yeemz said, “but I found my way gradually, over time, to my sound.”

Yeemz got her nickname one summer at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute. “In some ways it's also nice to have a different name for this other world of music making, even though they overlap,” she said, “ it's like a separate persona.”

At first it was scary for the classically-trained cellist to moonlight as a singer-songwriter.

“NEC is a really wonderful and supportive place, and I felt so lucky to be there,” Yeemz said, “but the classical music world is not always the most warm and supportive. It can feel kind of rigid.”

Breaking tradition felt like quiet rebellion for the self-described classical music kid.

“I think there's this idea sometimes that if you're splitting your focus, you're like not as good at each thing,” she said. “And I was really afraid of that because I wanted to excel at NEC, too, and with my classical piano trio. I didn't want to bring us down.”

Now she straddles genres with ease, performing with her classical trio and on recordings for pop artists including Sabrina Carpenter and Madison Beer. As Yeemz she's opened for some of her favorite bands on tour.  And last summer she released her debut album, “Blame the Gods.”

“What has been the most fun about this whole making music with a cello and only a cello thing is that it can be a melodic, riffy instrument — and it can be a really strummy, folky guitar instrument — and it can also be a really active, groovy baseline instrument.”

Yeemz said she’s not even close to running out of things she can discover with her cello. “I feel so grateful for it. It’s opened up things like this collaboration with A Far Cry, which I never thought could happen.”

For Yeemz, A Far Cry's new “Amplified” series highlights the potential for fluidity across genres. Works by contemporary classical composers like Caroline Shaw and Jesse Montgomery will also be woven into the program. The young cellist hopes it signals a new, more inclusive future for classical music.

Yeemz co-curated the concerts with A Far Cry cellist Francesca McNeely. “I've known her as a classical cellist for years,” McNeely said of Yeemz in an email. “To get to work with her in this other musical environment feels pretty special. She’s a gorgeous singer who writes so creatively, blending her classical training with her innate, poetic storytelling.”

Yeemz’s re-arrangements for the “Amplified” concerts are all new, and the Far Cry shows will be the only place audiences can experience them in this way. She heads to New Zealand soon to record her next album.

“To get to arrange 12 of these songs — and play them with like this chamber orchestra that I admire so much —  feels like a nice way to bookend this chapter before making new music,” she said, “It’s really inspiring.”

Yeemz kicks off A Far Cry’s new “Amplified” series Friday, Jan. 9 at the Somerville Armory and Saturday, Jan. 10 at St. Johns Church in Jamaica Plain.