The Heritage Project combines the talents of two celebrated bands; Curly Strings a four-piece from Estonia, and the April Verch Band, a trio lead by Ottawa Valley (Ontario, Canada) native, April Verch. The beginnings of this collaboration were simple. A mutual respect for each others music, a couple of brief chance meetings, and most importantly, the discovery of their mutual passion for the early traditional music of their homelands. The set list for The Heritage Projekt begins by presenting the oldest form of music from both bands’ traditions, builds into medleys that highlight songs and tunes from Estonia and the Ottawa Valley that sound like long-lost cousins, then melds into selections both bands have composed together that fit within these traditions. It’s a journey of their roots and influences from history into present day. It is an opportunity to preserve and continue this heritage music all at once. Both bands grew up rooted in the music of their specific region, honed their musicianship, and began to draw inspiration from other sources in forging their own brand of roots music. For Curly Strings that included blending inspiration from American bluegrass with their Estonian cultural space, and for the April Verch Band, fusing Old Time American, Scandinavian and classic country influences with regional Canadian styles. While standing in a long line together at a burger joint in New York City, the bands entered into deep discussions and comparisons about their homelands and musical traditions, and quickly discovered that they had a lot in common. Both Estonian and Ottawa Valley traditional music styles grew out of a mixed pot of cultures and people, and included dance music from the various immigrants who settled in each location. A question emerged amongst these young musicians from opposite sides of the globe. What would a collaboration sound like that honored these timeless traditions and celebrated the common ground of these unique ethnic styles? Thus began, The Heritage Projekt. This partnership is also an opportunity for both bands to revisit the roots that their music comes from, without concerns for having it fit their current band sound. Eeva Talsi of Curly Strings says “it’s something that both our bands have wanted to do for some time, and it’s been even more fun and exciting to do it as a team.” April Verch agrees, “by combining our efforts, we’re able to present our ethnic styles to each other, and to more and different parts of the world than we would be able to just on our own.” Following their three week debut tour (July 2019) book ended with appearances at Kaustinen Folk Music Festival (Finland) and Viljandi Folk Music Festival (Estonia) and a Canadian debut at La Grande Rencontre (Montreal, September, 2019) this new collaboration has already found a place in the hearts of audiences around the world and is in great demand to continue their blend of traditional and original material on the international stage.

The Covid lockdown period saw the birth of a special music project: “Curly Strings ja sõbrad – Lastele”. We had been considering creating a charity album for quite some time to offer children something special while also doing something good. It was our unanimous decision to support children who had lost parental care. We chose MTÜ Laste ja Noorte Kriisiprogramm as our cooperation partner – it is a crisis programme for children and youth that has supported and counselled children, youth and families who have lost a close family member for 25 years. When we contacted Maire Riis who runs the organisation, it became clear that it is a team with a high sense of mission whose work is important to support and recognise. We donated the entire revenue from the album sale to this organisation. From the creative side, we invited ten exceptional guest artists who are also parents to join us. We asked them to pick a song they had created or sung with their children and then gave them a Curly twist. In addition to us, the project included Ivo Linna and Robert Linna, Mari Jürjens, Lenna Kuurmaa, Mari Kalkun, Ewert and The Two Dragons, Liisi Koikson, Jalmar Vabarna, Marge Niller, Adeele Jaago and children of the Laulupesa song studio directed by Airi Liiva. The album was released in May 2020. The digital version contains a download link with 12 musical pieces in MP3 and WAV formats. The CD-version of the album includes an additional 52-page song and colouring book with descriptions of how each song was created, plus lyrics and musical scores of all songs. Additionally, Merike Paberits has drawn wonderful illustrations to the album as a fun colouring activity for children. The project was a challenge as we had to work during the lockdown period without meeting our bandmates and guest musicians. The creation, arrangement and recording of the material was done long-distance, but we managed quite nicely. We are so pleased that the album also has a book version that offers many fun activities for children as well as music teachers. We wish to thank the team of MTÜ Laste ja Noorte Kriisiprogramm from the bottom of our hearts for having offered young people support at their toughest moments through all these years. We wish them all the strength and inspiration for their future endeavours!

Symphonic Curly Strings started in 2018 when we were invited to perform at Germany’s biggest folk festival – the Rudolstadt-Festival. At the festival, we performed with the local Thüringer symphony orchestra for an audience of nearly 5000 people. We asked the assistance of noted Estonian composers and musicians to help us arrange our songs for symphony orchestra. These people included Tauno Aints, Tõnis Kõrvits, Tõnu Kõrvits, Rasmus Puur and Arno Tamm. It was an awesome experience and gave us momentum to bring the concert programme to our local audience as well. So, in spring 2019, we performed at three concerts with the Estonian National Youth Symphony Orchestra – in the Estonia Concert Hall, Pärnu Concert Hall and Vanemuine Concert Hall. We decided to collect the music performed at these concerts on an album titled “Sümfooniline Curly Strings”. The record included 14 pieces, all of them originating from the band’s previous albums. It was a true joy and privilege to cooperate with these talented musicians and composers. We had dreamt of performing with a symphony orchestra for a long time and we were totally amazed by the powerful new soundscape enriching our music.

It all started when the young and talented hit master nublu made a cover of our song “Kauges külas” titled “Kloogarannas”. This opened the door to a new exciting cooperation that is still going strong! The year 2021 saw the release of our and nublu’s first joint single “Olge terved, tütrekesed!”. It all started when we took an old Estonian run song “Suisa suuda” and tried to interpret it in the modern powerfolk key. “Suisa suuda” is a story about a girl who goes to the forest to get a broom and meets the Estonian folk hero Kalevipoeg on her way. The hero does not know how to take “no” for an answer and tries to force himself on the girl. Luckily, the girl manages to protect her honour by resisting the unchaste man and escaping home, where her father and mother praise her for how she acted. When we started to play the song at our band rehearsals, our discussions revealed that the entire text of the song is not so easy to understand – the old runo singers were clever to hide double meanings and unsaid words between the lines. It was, however, clear, that the song depicted the female viewpoint, so we figured that a male voice should also get to have their say. Luckily, nublu was willing to join and so, our first joint song was born, combing ancient words of wisdom, wild musical energy and epic mumble rap. It has been exciting to combine two different musical genres – rap and folk – and the result was something fresh and cool. Our individual creative efforts intertwine at our concert programmes and our joint performances are always spectacular, full of humour and spice. By today, we have shared the stage more times than we can count. Our latest joint performance was at the concert “Christmas Folk” organised at the end of 2024 at Alexela Concert Hall. There are several concerts yet to come than nobody should miss! :)

An inspiring musical cooperation is like a magical union where every sound, rhythm and word melds into one perfect whole. The meeting point of different ideas and styles is the birthplace of something unique that takes us to new creative heights. The consonance between Estonian Voices and us is something that touched our hearts and will not be forgotten. Several nice arrangements as well as new fresh pieces have been born out of this exciting musical symbiosis. In 2017, we joined under the name of Curly Voices and did our first Christmas tour. From thereon, we have shared a stage on several occasions and the concerts have always meant something more to us than simple performances – they have been experiences, the meaning of which will continue to haunt us and sound on at the deepest corners of our hearts. Estonian Voices, awarded with several prizes, is an innovative vocal sextet with Kadri Voorand as their main arranger and creative head. Their music includes jazz, classical music and folk and their repertoire is made up by original pieces as well as folk music, including a couple of pop hits.