PUTNEY — Next Stage Arts Project and Twilight Music present an evening of fiddle and cello explorations of Scottish, Celtic, and global music by Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas at Next Stage on Thursday, May 7, at 7:30 p.m.
With a shared passion for improvising on the melody and the groove of traditional tunes, Fraser and Haas work together, swapping melodic and harmonic lines and trading rhythmic riffs.
The musical partnership between Fraser and Haas is the fulfillment of Fraser's long-standing musical dream to return the cello to its historical role at the rhythmic heart of Scottish dance music.
In the last 100 years, piano and accordion have largely replaced the cello's melodic tones and percussive energy as fiddle accompaniment in traditional music. Fraser and Haas' debut recording, Fire & Grace, won not only critical acclaim, but also the coveted Scots Trad Music “Album of the Year” award, the Scottish equivalent of a Grammy.
The duo has represented Scotland at the Smithsonian Museum's Folklife Festival, and has been featured on public radio programs such as “Performance Today,” the “Thistle & Shamrock,” and “Mountain Stage.”
Long regarded as Scotland's premier fiddle ambassador, Fraser has a concert and recording career spanning 30 years, with a long list of awards, accolades, television credits, and feature performances on top movie soundtracks, including Last of the Mohicans and Titanic.
Fraser has been sponsored by the British Council to represent Scotland's music internationally, and received the Scottish Heritage Center Service Award for outstanding contributions to Scottish culture and traditions.
Fraser founded two summer programs nearly two decades ago, the Valley of the Moon Scottish Fiddling School in California and a week-long course on the Isle of Skye.
Haas, a California–based cellist, is a graduate of the Juilliard School of Music, and currently teaches at Berklee College of Music in Boston and with Fraser at his annual summer fiddle courses in California and Scotland.
She first attended the Valley of the Moon Scottish Fiddling School at age 11, and she played her first concert with him four years later. Now regularly touring with Fraser in concert halls throughout Europe and North America, she a young cellists who are redefining the role of the cello in traditional music.