The Ashokan Center has announced they are hosting a special public concert featuring the celebrated Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas Duo on Sunday, May 12, 2024, at 3:00 PM.
They will be joined by fiddler Emerald Rae and cellist Summer McCall, as well as Ashokan Music and Dance Camp founders Jay Ungar and Molly Mason, in a musical program that explores the emotional and chronological range of traditional Scottish music.
The Ashokan Cenuper is a unique non-profit organization with a 55-year history of youth outdoor education and 42 years of cultural preservation at summer Music & Dance Camps for adults and families. They have recently expanded outreach to offer local in-school and after-school arts and nature programming and increased access to their 385 acres of forests through guided hikes, day passes, and community events. The Ashokan Center has been a registered Historic Landmark since 2016.
The Sunday afternoon concert will conclude the Ashokan Center’s eleventh annual Scottish String Fling weekend, where fiddlers and cellists learn tunes by ear – initiated by Fraser in 2014. It is part of a decades-long tradition of music and dance camps founded by Jay Ungar and Molly Mason at the Ashokan Center and is one of many music camps created and led by Fraser over the decades — including the Valley Of The Moon Fiddle Camp in the Santa Cruz mountains of northern California, where Fraser first met an eleven-year-old budding cellist named Natalie Haas in 1995.
“It was just a life-changing experience for me,” says Haas. “It’s where I discovered traditional music.” Today, Natalie Haas is a world-renowned and highly in-demand performer and educator in her own right, and the Fraser/Haas duo partnership has endured for more than twenty years, through six acclaimed recordings and countless performances at concerts and festivals worldwide.
The strength of a duo is amazing; you can sort of ‘live’ ideas together, and I’m lucky to be playing with someone who is so simpatico. Every concert we do celebrates the music and its power to transport, to lift us… and we are highly likely to be test-driving new arrangements, new ideas, surging on forwards.
Alasdair Fraser.
Alasdair Fraser is one of the greatest carriers of the Scottish fiddle music tradition with expressive playing, mastery of his instrument, and deep understanding of his native music. Since 2003 Fraser has thrilled audiences internationally with their virtuosic playing, their near-telepathic understanding, and the joyful spontaneity and sheer physical presence of their music.
Natalie Haas is one of the most sought-after cellists in traditional music today. She and Fraser have toured as a duo for over twenty-three years, wowing audiences at festivals and concerts worldwide with their unique sound. A Juilliard grad with decades of touring and collaboration experience, she is an expert teacher and guide for cellists looking to support and shine.
Joining the duo is Summer McCall, a Celtic cellist, fiddler, and dancer and Emerald Rae, an American Fiddler & Folksinger with powerhouse vocals, groovy percussive fiddle, and eclectic songwriting style.
When possible, the Ashokan Center tickets work on sliding scale admission. Tickets to this concert start at $20 for the suggested price and $10 as the minimum price per ticket for all-age tickets. For more information about the Ashokan Center, visit here.
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