Barrage 8 stands tall on the shoulders of an incredible string legacy. Between 1996 and 2012 Barrage gave over 3000 performance in 27 countries. Its contemporary string arrangements of music both familiar and new, was presented to millions of people around the globe through its successful TV shows, DVD’s, audio recordings
and invigorating stage shows.
THE BEGINNING
The Barrage creative team were all string educators and musical directors that wanted to push the boundaries and experiment with all kinds of musical styles. In 1996 the directors decided to make some bold moves and audition young professional violinists from Canada and the US to create a troupe that could perform all over the world. It consisted of seven violinists, along with a four-piece back-line made up of bass guitar, acoustic/electric guitar, drum set and percussion. They initially gained attention for pushing the violin's musical boundaries in their attempts to change the public's general perception, at the time, of what was considered acceptable music to be played using the instrument. The Barrage artist team also incorporated choreography and several forms of dance into the show while playing the violin at the same time, thus generating expressive visuals to match the various musical styles.
Over the next few years, the show grew into a theatrical music production and by 2001 a second cast of Barrage was created & based in London, England. For this short time, two entirely different casts of Barrage were touring and performing in different parts of the world. These international casts were made up of young professional musicians from a variety of musical backgrounds. The musicians came from all over the world; Canada, England, Scotland, Ireland, Germany, New Zealand, and the United States. Over the years, Barrage occasionally performed as a semi-permanent resident show at Epcot in Walt Disney World Florida, Disneyland and Disney California Adventure Park in Anaheim, California.
Barrage released two concert DVD's, The World on Stage (1999) and Vagabond Tales (2003), both of which were broadcasted as prime-time concert specials on the PBS network across the United States and Canada.
