SAN FRANCISCO SCOTTISH FIDDLERS

The Joyful Return of San Francisco Scottish Fiddlers

Saturday, May 1
Veterans Memorial Auditorium
255 South Auburn Street, Grass Valley, CA 95945
7:00PM, $20 adults, $12 for youths 17 and under
Tickets at: The Briar Patch - 530-272-5333, The Book Seller - 530-272-2131,
Yabobo - 530-478-9114, Cherry Records - 530-823-2147
Brown Paper Tickets - 800-838-3006

"...the massed San Francisco Scottish Fiddlers are an experience not to be missed."
- San Francisco Chronicle

"...a raucous, extemporaneous sampling of authentic music from the
highlands and islands of Scotland. . . . no delayed standing ovation here;
the audience instantaneously rose to its feet with the piece's final notes."
- Anchorage Daily News

On Saturday, May 1st the San Francisco Scottish Fiddlers — as lively as a dance band and as majestic as a symphony orchestra — return to Grass Valley Veteran’s Auditorium for a concert of rollicking music, song and dance. The stage will be filled with over 130 musicians playing fiddles, piano, drums, cellos, guitars, harps and more, providing an infectious sense of fun and joy in community-based music making. Or music-based community, depending on how one looks at it.

“We basically take a village on the road; we’re living the music” says the group’s music director, renowned Scottish fiddler Alasdair Fraser, who together with his wife Sally Ashcraft and about 40 friends founded San Francisco Scottish Fiddlers (SFSF) in 1987. There are now over 200 members, stretching from northern California, throughout the US and in several other countries, including Scotland, France, Canada and Australia. “Music crosses all kinds of boundaries, and clears away obstacles; children and adults, individuals with widely varying backgrounds and levels of musical skill, and people who don’t even share a common spoken language can be part of the village in a meaningful way.”

That sense of participation crosses over into the audiences, as well. SFSF concerts tend to inspire spontaneous dancing in the aisles. The fiddlers on stage have learned the tunes by heart, and you won’t see music stands on stage. People are listening to each other, and there’s a real sense of play. "With Scottish traditional fiddle music, you can go from an elegant 18th century pastoral air to a get-wild, get-down dance tune in the stroke of a bow,” says Fraser. “and there are a few hundred years of tunes to get through in a given concert!”

SFSF members get together to share their love of the music during meet monthly informal meetings and numerous engagements around the Bay Area throughout the year and occasionally, they go on tour. In addition to the annual spring concert series, the group has toured in Alaska, and across northern California, including a performance at the Lake Tahoe Music Festival.

In a last minute development, Alasdair Fraser, who has returned to Scotland for a family emergency, has invited Seattle-based brother-sister duo Ryan and Cali McKasson to perform in his stead. Ryan and Cali began attending to Alasdair’s Valley of the Moon Scottish Fiddle School while still in their teens, went on to become fine exponents of the Scottish tradition, and these days return to teach at the camp. Ryan, on fiddle, and Cali, on piano, have recorded and performed as the core of their band The McKassons since 2004. Ryan plays with the popular contra dance band, The Syncopaths, and will be performing with Ensemble Gallilei in upcoming multi-media show “Seeing American”, produced in partnership with the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Neil Conan from NPR's Talk of the Nation.

www.themckassons.com

For more information on the group and on Alasdair Fraser, visit www.SFScottishFiddlers.org and www.AlasdairFraser.com