{"id":619,"date":"2015-02-02T16:15:30","date_gmt":"2015-02-03T00:15:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wou.edu\/westernjournal\/?p=619"},"modified":"2015-02-02T16:15:30","modified_gmt":"2015-02-03T00:15:30","slug":"april-verch-band","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/april-verch-band\/","title":{"rendered":"April Verch Band"},"content":{"rendered":"
By NATHANIEL DUNAWAY\r\n Entertainment Editor<\/pre>\n
Led by acclaimed Canadian fiddler and step dancer April Verch, the April Verch Band will perform at Western next week as part of their Pacific Northwest Tour.<\/p>\n
Specializing in traditional folk fiddle music and supported by a combination of bass, banjo, mandolin, and guitar, the band has traveled all over the world to perform for audiences in China, Wales, and Germany, just to name a few.<\/p>\n
Verch, who grew up in the Ottawa Valley in Ontario, Canada, told the Journal that she started step dancing (a dance style focusing primarily on the feet, tap and Irish river-dance are two examples) when she was three, and began playing the fiddle when she was six.<\/p>\n
\u201cI decided early on that I wanted to make a career out of it,\u201d Verch said. \u201cI loved performing and sharing music.\u201d<\/p>\n
After a year at Boston\u2019s Berklee College of Music, Verch became the first woman to win both of Canada\u2019s two top fiddle championships. She also performed in the opening ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.<\/p>\n
The Ottawa Valley style of step dancing, according to Verch, is a \u201cmelting pot\u201d of dance styles.<\/p>\n
\u201c[When] people see it, it usually looks like something they\u2019ve never seen, but they always recognize an element of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The finale of Verch\u2019s performances typically involves the performer playing the fiddle and step-dancing at the same time.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re not a fiddle fan,\u201d Verch said, \u201cyou shouldn\u2019t be afraid to come out and you shouldn\u2019t think it\u2019s going to be the same thing all night. There will probably be something that will grab you.\u201d<\/p>\n
The April Verch Band will be performing on campus at the Smith Music Hall Feb. 6th and 7th at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $25.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
World-class musician and step dancer to perform at Western<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":367,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-entertainment"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/367"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}