The musical partnership between Alasdair Fraser, long regarded as Scotland’s premier fiddle ambassador, and the sizzlingly-talented Californian cellist Natalie Haas may not seem an obvious one, but the duo’s dazzling teamwork, driving rhythms, and their shared passion for improvising on the melody and the groove of Scottish tunes has helped reconstruct and revive the Scottish tradition of playing dance music on violin and cello. They have toured internationally for over twenty years, wowing audiences at festivals and concerts worldwide with their unique sound and have released six critically acclaimed and award winning albums along the way.
cutting-edge fiddle and cello explorations of Scottish and global music
” … you would think they’d been playing together for centuries. While his fiddle dances, her cello throbs darkly or plucks puckishly. Then [Haas] opens her cello’s throat, joining Fraser in soaring sustains, windswept refrains, and sudden, jazzy explosions. Their sound is as urbane as a Manhattan midnight, and as wild as a Clackmannan winter.” – Boston Globe
The musical partnership between Alasdair Fraser, long regarded as Scotland’s premier fiddle ambassador, and the sizzlingly-talented Californian cellist Natalie Haas may not seem an obvious one, but the duo’s dazzling teamwork, driving rhythms, and their shared passion for improvising on the melody and the groove of Scottish tunes has helped reconstruct and revive the Scottish tradition of playing dance music on violin and cello. They have toured internationally for over twenty years, wowing audiences at festivals and concerts worldwide with their unique sound and have released six critically acclaimed and award winning albums along the way.
MASTERCLASS
A rare opportunity to join two master musicians in a guided, creative session of composition and arrangement.
CONCERT
An evening of musical alchemy! Powerful rhythms meet transcendent harmonic exchange, in the music from Scotland, and the world over.
WORKSHOP
Come share a meal, learn a new tune or two, and make some music together! All instruments, levels, and ages welcome.
MASTERCLASS
A rare opportunity to join two master musicians in a guided, creative session of composition and arrangement.
CONCERT
Join us for an evening of musical alchemy! Powerful rhythms meet transcendent harmonic exchange, in the music from Scotland, and the world over.
WORKSHOP
Come share a meal, learn a new tune or two, and make some music together! All instruments, levels, and ages welcome.
Natalie Haas
Cello
A graduate of the Juilliard School, where she studied with cellist Fred Sherry, Natalie discovered the cello at age nine. In addition to having extensive classical music training, she is accomplished in a broad array of fiddle genres. Her music journey found purpose when she fell in love with Celtic music at the Valley of the Moon Scottish Fiddling School at age 11. With inspiration and encouragement from director Fraser, she began to investigate the cello's potential for rhythmic accompaniment to fiddle tunes, and to this day, the two continue to resurrect and reinvent the cello's historic role in Scottish music.
As a studio musician, Natalie has been a guest artist on over 100 albums, including those of Cape Breton fiddler Natalie MacMaster, Irish greats Altan, Solas, and Liz Carroll, and Americana icon Dirk Powell.
Natalie's skills as an educator make her one of the most in demand teachers at fiddle camps across the globe. She also teaches privately and in a workshop setting.
¨Natalie basically wrote the book on the cello's place in Celtic music.¨ - Peter Winter
¨In the hands of Natalie Haas, the cello becomes a truly magical instrument." - Green Man
Alasdair Fraser
Fiddle
As a fiddler equally capable of playing haunting Gaelic airs and rumbustious dance tunes and improvising endless variations on traditional themes, Alasdair has worked in a variety of successful partnerships, including his duos with pianist Paul Machlis and guitarist Tony McManus and his acclaimed band Skyedance. He has also guested with The Chieftains, The Waterboys, Itzhak Perlman and Los Angeles Master Chorale, appeared on innumerable broadcasts including A Prairie Home Companion and CBS TV’s Kennedy Center Honors and performed on film soundtracks including The Last of the Mohicans and Titanic. His compositions have featured in works of the Richmond (Virginia) Ballet and Shiftworks Dance Ensemble and his commissions include Fettercairn Suite.
Since 2003 Alasdair has featured in a duo with cellist Natalie Haas, restoring the wee fiddle and big fiddle partnership that flourished in eighteenth century Scotland to contemporary prominence at the cutting edge of tradition-rooted creativity. Their debut album, Fire and Grace, was voted Album of the Year at the Scots Trad Music Awards 2004, adding to Alasdair’s North American Independent Record Distributors award for his Dawn Dance album in 1996, and they continue to thrill audiences internationally with their virtuosic playing, their near-telepathic understanding and the joyful spontaneity and sheer physical presence of their music.
Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas – Why wasn’t I told?
Posted On March 18, 2013
Blue Mountains Music Festival
Katoomba, NSW, Australia
Friday 15th – Sunday 17th, March 2013
By my quick calculation, I’ve been at music festivals for about 90 days in the past 15 years. And I enjoyed every one of those days, even the real muddy ones.
To be frank, I’m flat out recalling some acts I’ve seen. Many names in small letters on the faded T-shirts don’t even nudge my recognition meter. On the other hand, there are many, many indelible memories.
Then there are the handful of performers who were so moving, so perfect, that it felt like … I don’t know, like an unexpected gift, out of kilter with the informal festival surroundings. It’s like the world is a little out of balance, and things have been tipped in your favor.
So it was with Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas.
I knew very little about this duo, but minutes into their Friday night set it was obvious they were something very special. There is an indefinable quality that makes a great duo – an ability to read and complete each other’s musical thoughts, as well as virtuosity and sensitivity to the material. You see it most often in jazz and Haas has, to quote Sunday’s memorable stage intro, a “jazz heart”.
Fraser and Haas seamlessly swap roles, moving back and forth from melody to rhythm, harmonising, feeding off each others lines. Mostly it is Fraser laying the melody, and Haas providing the rhythmic propulsion; bowing, plucking like a jazz bassist, even strumming chords.
He’s in his 50s, she in her 20s. They were so together, so perfectly matched, there had to be a back story. There is.
Alasdair Fraser moved from his native Scotland to California more than 30 years ago, and established the Valley of the Moon fiddle camp in 1984. Natalie attended the fiddle camp at age 11, and was performing with Fraser in her mid-teens. They made their first album together in 2004.
Although cello may be unusual in folk music, Fraser explains that violin and cello were the Scottish “dance band of choice” through to the close of the 19th century, so they have taken something old and made it new.
Friday night’s show was so inspiring I went back for Saturday night, and it was just as good. Their final set was at midday Sunday, on a bigger stage with better PA, but it clashed with my only chance to see Canadian cellist Zoe Keating. Would three times be too much? Haas came to the stage looking very casually dressed, without Saturday’s immaculate makeup, cup of tea in hand. Fraser seemed a little bleary eyed. It looked like Saturday night was a long one.
Then they played, and their third set was the best of the three. Even a broken violin string during their final medley was turned to advantage, with Haas given a chance to solo on ‘Josefin’s Waltz’ before Fraser rejoined her to put the tune to bed, and take up the medley where they left off. It was totally exhilarating stuff.
Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas – Why wasn’t I told?
Posted On March 18, 2013
Blue Mountains Music Festival
Katoomba, NSW, Australia
Friday 15th – Sunday 17th, March 2013
By my quick calculation, I’ve been at music festivals for about 90 days in the past 15 years. And I enjoyed every one of those days, even the real muddy ones.
To be frank, I’m flat out recalling some acts I’ve seen. Many names in small letters on the faded T-shirts don’t even nudge my recognition meter. On the other hand, there are many, many indelible memories.
Then there are the handful of performers who were so moving, so perfect, that it felt like … I don’t know, like an unexpected gift, out of kilter with the informal festival surroundings. It’s like the world is a little out of balance, and things have been tipped in your favor.
So it was with Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas.
I knew very little about this duo, but minutes into their Friday night set it was obvious they were something very special. There is an indefinable quality that makes a great duo – an ability to read and complete each other’s musical thoughts, as well as virtuosity and sensitivity to the material. You see it most often in jazz and Haas has, to quote Sunday’s memorable stage intro, a “jazz heart”.
Fraser and Haas seamlessly swap roles, moving back and forth from melody to rhythm, harmonising, feeding off each others lines. Mostly it is Fraser laying the melody, and Haas providing the rhythmic propulsion; bowing, plucking like a jazz bassist, even strumming chords.
He’s in his 50s, she in her 20s. They were so together, so perfectly matched, there had to be a back story. There is.
Alasdair Fraser moved from his native Scotland to California more than 30 years ago, and established the Valley of the Moon fiddle camp in 1984. Natalie attended the fiddle camp at age 11, and was performing with Fraser in her mid-teens. They made their first album together in 2004.
Although cello may be unusual in folk music, Fraser explains that violin and cello were the Scottish “dance band of choice” through to the close of the 19th century, so they have taken something old and made it new.
Friday night’s show was so inspiring I went back for Saturday night, and it was just as good. Their final set was at midday Sunday, on a bigger stage with better PA, but it clashed with my only chance to see Canadian cellist Zoe Keating. Would three times be too much? Haas came to the stage looking very casually dressed, without Saturday’s immaculate makeup, cup of tea in hand. Fraser seemed a little bleary eyed. It looked like Saturday night was a long one.
Then they played, and their third set was the best of the three. Even a broken violin string during their final medley was turned to advantage, with Haas given a chance to solo on ‘Josefin’s Waltz’ before Fraser rejoined her to put the tune to bed, and take up the medley where they left off. It was totally exhilarating stuff.