Press release from Blue Ridge Orchestra:
WHO: Blue Ridge Orchestra (Asheville) conducted by Dr. Milton Crotts; with Newberry & Verch, plus Franklin Keel, Megan McConnell, Rebecca O’Quinn, Alex Watson, Ryan Kijanka
WHAT: BRO Revels! 2018
WHEN & WHERE:
Sunday, December 9, 1pm, Folk Art Center, Blue Ridge Parkway MP 382
Sunday, December 9, 3:30pm, Folk Art Center, Blue Ridge Parkway MP 382HOW MUCH? $25 General / $15 Students & Friends of BRO
TICKETS and INFO: (828) 782-3354 www.blueridgeorchestra.org
STORY:
The Blue Ridge Orchestra under the direction of Dr. Milton Crotts presents “BRO Revels! 2018,” a unique celebration of the holiday season featuring internationally renowned traditional music duo Newberry & Verch, whose banjo-fiddle performances have excited audiences from Canada to California.Sponsored by Mosaic Community Lifestyle Realty and supported by the Asheville Area Arts Council, these concerts also showcase the Blue Ridge Orchestra’s chamber strings, joined by local Asheville music stars Franklin Keel, Megan McConnell, Alex Watson, and Ryan Kijanka, along with dancer/vocalist Rebecca O’Quinn. Loaded with talent both local and international, these concerts are packed with surprises.
Joe Newberry grew up in a family full of singers and dancers. He took up the guitar and banjo as a teenager and learned fiddle tunes from great Missouri fiddlers. April Verch grew up listening to her Dad’s country band play for dances in the Ottawa Valley. She started step dancing at age three and fiddling at age six. Both Newberry & Verch became masters of their traditions and tour the world with their respective bands and projects. Yet they never forget the roots of their music, that connection to the people in the audience, on the dance floor, to the community sparked by a good song.
The duo’s collaboration is fueled by their kindred passion for bringing people together to celebrate traditional music. Blues and ballads stem into Canadian regional styles and originals in their program featuring “Music of the season, from the Ottaway Valley to the Ozarks.”
The brain child of Dr. Milton Crotts, this year’s Revels! integrates Newberry & Verch’s traditional tunes with holiday revelry that runs the gamut from Messiah to Kenny Loggins. Franklin Keel will perform the violin solo in Vivaldi’s Winter on his cello, and the guitar solo from Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s ecstatic Christmas Eve Sarajevo on electric cello. Folk songs and traditional carols will be presented with a fresh and vivid perspective in this uniquely Asheville start to the winter holiday season.
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