Verch playing at crossings

April Verch, a JUNO-nominated fiddler and champion stepdancer, returns to Crossings at Carnegie with her band at 7 p.m. Sunday.

“April’s high-energy brand of musicianship inevitably brings audiences to their feet, whether at a folk festival in Finland, a concert hall like the Ryman Auditorium, a bluegrass festival in Oklahoma, or a Celtic festival in California,” Crossings spokesmen said.

Sponsors cited Verch’s subtle attributes, from the pureness of her voice to the finely detailed fiddle phrasing. Her repertoire is broad, encompassing material from bluegrass to Brazilian to Celtic, from a jaunty Canadian folksong to a poignant contemporary ballad.

Verch studied at Berklee College of Music, where she began to blend together different forms of traditional music to form her distinct sound.

She launched her professional career by winning the Canadian Grand Masters Fiddle Champion and the Canadian Open Fiddle Champion titles - the first and only woman to win both.

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