Master Scottish Fiddler Alastair Fraser is a humble man.
He won’t boast about the time he honoured actor Sean Connery at a who’s who event called The Kennedy Center Honors in Washington or his performance on major movie soundtracks like the Last of the Mohicans. Instead, when you ask Fraser about some career highlights he’ll talk about all the good people and good conversations he’s had with fellow musicians, and how delighted he is to see people he taught at fiddle camps blow him away. And how the fiddle, over the years, has become more than an instrument to him.
“It can be a healing thing, it can energize people, it can change energy in a room, it can make people do things they never thought they would do, and it’s a very potent force,” said Fraser from his home in California. “And the people that gather around music and dance and [sing], to me are the people I want to hang out with and spend a life with.”
Fraser will be performing in Qualicum Beach Feb. 25 with acclaimed cellist Natalie Haas.
Fraser started playing the fiddle, or violin, when he was eight years old in Scotland. He was a bit of a shy lad and thought he would learn some Scottish music to play at home and keep to himself, he said. But the fiddle became an important tool in his life, as he learned that it was a way to investigate the culture and the human condition, gather people together and give them a voice.
Through his musical explorations Fraser has compiled a burgeoning repertoire of several centuries of Scottish music as well as his own compositions. He has released several critically acclaimed albums and contributed to more than 50 albums as a guest artist.
Fraser and Haas are currently touring and will be coming from the United States for one show in Qualicum Beach at the Oceanside Baptist Church and one in Vancouver before they jet off to Australia.
Get $25 tickets for their show at the Vintage Candy Shop in Qualicum Beach or by emailing Joyce at beatonqualicum@gmail.com or Dave at dave barta dbarta@shaw.ca. The concert starts at 7:30 p.m.
