Dave Ruch (born November 8, 1964) is an American performer and teaching artist working with K-12 students and multi-generational audiences across much of the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. Ruch specializes in educational programming, performing over two hundred concerts, lectures, workshops and distance learning programs each year.

Biography

Ruch began playing guitar in 1980. After playing semi-professionally in Buffalo NY and Washington DC from 1982-1992, Ruch became a full-time musician in November 1992, initially teaching music and performing regionally from his home base in Buffalo. He also performed nationally during this period with musicians such as

David Gans David Gans ( he, דָּוִד בֶּן שְׁלֹמֹה גנז; ‎1541–1613), also known as Rabbi Dovid Solomon Ganz, was a Jewish chronicler, mathematician, historian, astronomer and astrologer. He is the author of "Tzemach David" (1592 ...

, Virginia and the Blue Dots, and members of the band moe. Ruch began his arts-in-education career in 1995, developing curriculum-based music programs for K-12 students around social studies content areas. He continues to work in sixty to seventy schools each year as a performer and teaching artist. In 2014, Ruch developed a series of virtual field trips and online cultural arts programs for the school market. Ruch has dozens of recording sessions with older “heritage” musicians. He was appointed to the New York Council for the Humanities’ “Speakers in the Humanities” program in 2006 and stayed on through the program’s demise in 2015, and is currently a "Public Scholar" with that organization He was project director for the Traditional Arts in Upstate New York (TAUNY) award-winning “W is for the Woods: Traditional Adirondack Music and Music Making” website in 2009, and music director and concert host, producer and musician for TAUNY’s 2013 “Songs to Keep” project. Ruch was featured in the nationally syndicated 2014 “Songs to Keep” documentary from Mountain Lake PBS, which went on to win a New England Emmy Award., and in 2017 was featured in the

CBS News Sunday Morning ''CBS News Sunday Morning'' (normally shortened to ''Sunday Morning'' on the program itself since 2009) is an American news magazine A news magazine is a typed, printed, and published magazine, radio or television program, usually published ...

cover story on the bicentennial of the

Erie Canal The Erie Canal is a historic canal in upstate New York that runs east-west between the Hudson River and Lake Erie. Completed in 1825, the canal was the first navigable waterway connecting the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes, vastly reducing t ...

Ruch founded The Canal Street String Band in 2010 in Buffalo NY. The group was named to the New York State Presenters Network artist roster in 2014-15, receiving funding for six residency projects across the state.

Discography

2015 “Wah Hoo!” - The Canal Street String Band 2013 “Songs to Keep – The Adirondack North Country Recordings Reimagined” - Various Artists (Producer and Performer) 2011 “Introducing the Canal Street String Band” - The Canal Street String Band 2008 “The Oldest Was Born First” - Dave Ruch 2004 “Good Time Music 2” - The Hill Brothers 2003 “Season of Light” - The Hill Brothers 2002 “The 3 R’s” - The Hill Brothers 1999 “Soft Swing Duets” - The String Brothers 1998 “Good Time Music” - The Hill Brothers

References

External links

Dave Ruch website

Canal Street String Band website

Interview for "W is for the Woods" website launch

for “The Oldest Was Born First”
CD release concert recording
for “The Oldest Was Born First”
North Country Public Radio interview
for "The Oldest Was Born First" {{DEFAULTSORT:Ruch, Dave American performance artists American music educators 1964 births Living people