Alasdair Fraser & Natalie Haas – *postponed*

Saturday, May 9th 2020
7pm at C'Ville Coffee

This concert has been postponed, and we will announce the new date once it has been confirmed.  We will be in touch with those who have purchased tickets.

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The Prism Coffeehouse and WTJU 91.1 FM Radio are delighted welcome the return of

Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas – “Scottish Fiddle Legend with Master Cellist”


Saturday May 9th 2020 at 7pm (doors at 6:30pm)

C’Ville Coffee, Charlottesville

Ticket prices: $22 advance/$25 Door. Click HERE for TICKETS.
Only available from the Prism Coffeehouse or by calling 434 234 4717.


Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas

The musical partnership between Alasdair Fraser, long regarded as Scotland’s premier fiddle ambassador, and the sizzlingly-talented California 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 seventeen years, wowing audiences at festivals and concerts worldwide with their unique sound and have released four critically acclaimed and award winning albums along the way.
Alasdair 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 (Last of the Mohicans, 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.
Natalie Haas, a graduate of the Juilliard School of Music, wasn’t even born when Alasdair was winning national fiddle competitions on the other side of the Atlantic. But this seemingly unlikely pairing is the fulfillment of a long-standing musical dream for Fraser, whose cutting-edge musical explorations took him full circle to find a cellist who could help him return the cello to its historical role at the rhythmic heart of Scottish dance music. Natalie is in the vanguard of young cellists who are redefining the role of the cello in traditional music.


The duo represented Scotland at the Smithsonian Museum’s Folklife Festival, have been featured on nationally broadcast Performance Today, the Thistle & Shamrock, and Mountain Stage. They both teach at Fraser’s popular annual summer fiddle courses (Valley of the Moon Scottish Fiddling School and Sierra Fiddle Camp in California, and at Sabhal Mor Ostaig Gaelic College in Scotland), and Natalie is on the faculty of Berklee College of Music in Boston.
“Cellists are coming out of the woodwork to study with Natalie, to learn how she creates a groove and a whole chunky rhythm section,” says Fraser. “It’s inspiring to hear the cello unleashed from its orchestral shackles!”
One of the inspirations is the duo’s debut recording, Fire & Grace, which displays dazzling teamwork, driving, dancing rhythms, and the duo’s shared passion for improvising on the melody and the groove of Scottish tunes. The two instruments duck and dive around each other, swapping melodic and harmonic lines, and trading rhythmic riffs. The recording won not only critical acclaim, but also the coveted the Scots Trad Music “Album of the Year” award, the Scottish equivalent of a Grammy. Fire & Grace, and the duo’s new CD In the Moment, and Fraser’s many other recordings are on his own Culburnie Records label.
“ … 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 Clakmannan [Scotland] winter.”
— Boston Globe

Tickets available here!
Please note there are no paper tickets; advanced purchasers’ names will be on the ‘will call’ list at the door.


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