A B.C. musician has launched a new record label to promote, preserve and archive B.C.’s 150-year history of fiddle music.
Behind Woodbox Records is fiddler and music teacher Daniel Lapp – a person well-known to Victoria's music community – who, over the past two decades, has composed hundreds of fiddle tunes and collected 3,000 original B.C. tunes from 300 composers.
“I am very excited to be launching a new record label ... to celebrate, promote and preserve our rich legacy of fiddle music in British Columbia," said Lapp in a news release. "The label just signed a worldwide distribution deal and soon our albums will be found online and in shops in Germany, Dublin, Montreal and New York."
Alongside the launch of Woodbox Records, Lapp is also releasing a new album of fiddle music – his first in over 20 years.
While it has been over two decades since Lapp's last fiddle album, Reunion, was released in 2002, the musician has not been sitting idle.
Lapp has taught the fiddle to hundreds of students, toured and recorded with his electronic band Lappelectro, and played live shows with the likes of Rickie Lee Jones, Gord Downie, Elvis Costello and Lou Reed.
At the Victoria Conservatory of Music, where he is the artistic director, Lapp has developed an innovative program for contemporary music. His annual Home For Christmas Concert, which features his 180 students, has grown to two full houses in the Royal Theatre and will celebrate its 23rd anniversary in December.
