Daniel Lapp | Early Spirit
We appreciate your help!
2018
PM
MEL LEHAN HALL AT ST. JAMES i
3214 West 10th Ave, Kitsilano
Accessible 
All ages
This event has already taken place.
If you wish to book all three BC Fiddle Festival concerts at the same time (and save $15), and/or all three same-day workshops (and save $10), please go HERE. (Note that if you want to book more than one package, just select one, put it in your cart, then select 'View Cart' at the top right, then 'Continue Shopping' at the bottom left. Select the next package and repeat.) Everyone who attends one or more workshops will receive a Rebate Coupon which can be redeemed for $7 off at an evening concert. (Space permitting.) Please note that workshop tickets are not available at the outlets - they must be purchased on-line or at the door. There is also no reservation function for workshops, but there is plenty of room for all! Just come.
9:15pm - Daniel Lapp
DANIEL'S FIDDLE WORKSHOP: Saturday, February 10th, 2018 at 1:00pm. To buy a ticket, please go HERE.
Born in Prince George, Daniel was the youngest son in a family where music was a natural part of life. With a grandfather, five uncles and his mother Charlotte all playing fiddle and a bevy of accordion playing aunts, family get-togethers always included good music.
His mother had accompanied her fiddling/farming father and uncles at old-time fiddle dances across Alberta since she was ten. She was also the local piano teacher, so Daniel grew up with regular classical piano and violin lessons which years later he was grateful for… as she’d told him he would be one day. Those lessons and sessions turned out to be more important than even a proud mother might have dreamed. In the years since, Daniel has become the best-known and most influential fiddlers in British Columbia, if not in all of Canada.
They’ve taken him from coast to coast to coast in Canada, as well as Ireland, England, Scotland, Wales, Finland and Germany. He has performed with symphony orchestras and at global events like the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Victoria, EXPO 2000 in Germany and the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games opening ceremonies. He’s played on over 100 albums, working and touring with artists including Spirit of the West, Rickie Lee Jones, Barney Bentall, Mae Moore, Beth Orton and Kathryn Tickell.
As a fiddler, jazz trumpeter and singer/composer, Daniel performs regularly with his band Lappelectro, a west-coast based 'jazz electronica' quartet and in Bowfire, an ensemble of eleven diverse fiddlers. One of his latest projects is Polkastra, directing a bunch of brilliant New York classical musicians who have decided they want to play the polka. As Daniel puts it “I am always happy to share the polka experience”. He’s also a regular feature at the Celtic Colours Festival in Cape Breton and Celtic Connections in Glasgow.
It’s the kind of musical life young musicians dream of when they’re playing their scales for the umpteenth time…but wait, there’s more!
Knowing there was vast repertoire of little-known original BC fiddle tunes out there, he set out to collect them in 1990 and a year later was invited to perform some of the 1,000 tunes he’d found at the University College, Cork in Ireland, during the Fiddlesticks Festival.
Inspired by his grandfather, in 1990 he began offering fiddle lessons in Victoria and less than five years later he and the BC Fiddle Orchestra – a dozen young fiddlers from around British Columbia and their backup band – were onstage in front of 60,000 people at the Commonwealth Games.
He’s founder and president of the Victoria Fiddle Society and founder of the House of Music in Victoria BC. The Daniel Lapp’s House of Music Society was a longtime dream, inspired again by his grandfather and is home to 20 different violin and fiddle teachers on board.
The energy to create such a rich, meaningful musical life can only come from a passionate love of music and being witness to the kind of profound changes it can make in people’s lives, young and old. It’s clear in all of Daniel’s work, but never clearer than when you hear him play.
DANIEL'S FIDDLE WORKSHOP: Saturday, February 10th, 2018 at 1:00pm. To buy a ticket, please go HERE.
8:00pm - Gabriel Dubreuil & Early Spirit
GABE'S FIDDLE WORKSHOP: Sunday, February 11th, 2018 at 5:00pm. To buy a ticket, please go HERE.
Gabriel Dubreuil has come together with guitarist and singer, J Knutson, from Spirit of the West, bassist Will Ross and percussionist Ben Kelly to create an innovative musical fusion of jazz, Celtic and North American fiddle traditions. They honour the spontaneity of improvised music while keeping the intimacy and pace of Celtic tunes. Described as “fast-rising” (The Georgia Straight) and a “coup-de-coeur” (Radio-Canada/CBC) Early Spirit sails its way into your heart and soul.
Gabriel Dubreuil is a classical, jazz and folk violinist from North Vancouver. He graduated from Berklee College of Music in 2016, and has since established a name as a violin teacher in Vancouver, and on the Sunshine Coast. Gabriel's bachelors in jazz performance and American Roots music has supported his work as a touring musician in Canada and in the United-States. He is best recognized for his Celtic-swing group, the Gabriel Dubreuil Trio, the folk rock band, Early Spirit and the Boston based Loose Roots Duo.
Besides teaching and performing, Gabriel has worked as a session musician in both Vancouver and Boston for the past five years. He has played on pop, jazz and rock albums, including music videos with local and international bands, such as the X-Ambassadors, and Karthik Maestrokes. Gabriel is currently spearheading the launch of his second album to be released in late 2018, as well as the debut album for Early Spirit.
GABE'S FIDDLE WORKSHOP: Sunday, February 11th, 2018 at 5:00pm. To buy a ticket, please go HERE.
7:45pm - Bad To The Bow
Opening the night will be a short set by Bad to the Bow, a community youth fiddle group from the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia. group is part of The Coast String Fiddlers Association, a non-profit organization that promotes the education and performance of traditional fiddle music.The group is made up of 10 teen-aged fiddlers with accompaniment by parents and community volunteers on bass, cello, piano, guitar, penny whistle and percussion. Bad to the Bow keeps up a large repertoire of fiddle tunes from nearly every corner of the world including Canadian and American Old-tyme, Bluegrass, Cape Breton, Irish, Scottish, French Canadian, Metis, Klezmer, Breton, Scandinavian, contemporary fiddle music including tunes written by Canadian composer Oliver Schroer, and tunes composed by the group itself.
The First Annual BC Fiddle Festival is made possible with assistance from the BC Music Fund.