By Jon Chown
Renata Bratt has spent her career moving between musical worlds. From classical concert halls to jazz gigs and Celtic fiddle camps, she’s been there. It doesn’t matter if it’s a community orchestra or musical legends, she’ll give it her all.
That philosophy will be on display next month in Boulder Creek, where Bratt will perform with Concertino Strings in a pair of free concerts built around the theme “You Can’t Go Home Again.”
The performances, set for April 8 and April 11 at Boulder Creek United Methodist Church, bring together a 25-piece ensemble, local composers and a program focused around memories and longing.
“It’s about a remembrance of an idea,” Bratt said. “Maybe a place that’s gone, or something you can’t return to — but also imagining something better.”
Renata Bratt conducts a rehearsal at the Boulder Creek United Methodist Church.
Concertino Strings isn’t a typical orchestra. Founded and led by violinist Joanne Tanner, the group blends professional musicians with adult learners and enthusiasts in a collaborative setting.
“Joanne’s mission is to provide a place for adults, learners and aficionados, to play,” Bratt said. “It mirrors how people naturally learn.”
Bratt joined the group around 2020, after Tanner began hosting informal performances during the pandemic. What started in a carport eventually moved indoors, as the Boulder Creek church opened its doors to the ensemble.
The result is a community-driven orchestra where local creativity plays a central role. That includes original works by Bratt and fellow composers Les Thaler and Martin Gaskell, all of whom will conduct their own pieces during the program.
Thaler’s “Azan for Mariupol” reflects on the destruction of the Ukrainian port city during the 2022 war, featuring a prominent cello line performed by Bratt. Gaskell’s selections range from a quiet meditation to a multimedia piece incorporating images of the cosmos.
“It turns out we have composers in the group,” Bratt said. “So now they’re conducting their own music, which is really special.”
Bratt’s own composition, “Janice at Pomona Island,” draws from a deeply personal experience: a trip to New Zealand that unexpectedly connected distant parts of her life.
While traveling with family near Lake Manapouri, she encountered a place name that felt oddly familiar — Pomona Island — echoing places far closer to home.
“It was shocking and hilarious and wonderful,” she said. “Some explorer had gone through and named everything after him.”
The piece captures both the humor and wonder of that moment.
From Classical Roots to Bluegrass
Bratt’s wide-ranging musical path wasn’t always intentional. Early in her career, while playing a wedding gig in San Diego, she was handed a chord chart — a format she had never learned to play from.
“I was horrified,” she said. “I couldn’t do it at all.”
Determined to expand her skills, she attended a workshop at Stanford University in 1992 led by Turtle Island String Quartet.
“I was lucky to learn from them,” she said.
That experience led to studies at Berklee College of Music and time spent at fiddle camps, including programs led by Mark O’Connor.
“I saw fiddling for the first time,” she said. “I had not seen it before.”
Now based in Scotts Valley, Bratt has built a career that comfortably spans classical, jazz and folk traditions. She has also collaborated musically with her husband, Lee Ray Bratt, whose background is in computer music and recording.
Along the way, she has performed with an eclectic range of artists, including Béla Fleck, and even shared the stage with Jimmy Page and Robert Plant during a performance that required string players.
“He (Robert Plant) doesn’t act like he’s a big deal. Page is more like an amazing musician type for us musicians. But Plant is just a more down to earth type of guy,” she said of the two famous rockers. “They were very nice. They were just ‘let’s get er done.’”
The Rhythm Behind the Fiddles
Beyond Boulder Creek, Bratt will also appear in May with the San Francisco Scottish Fiddlers, a large ensemble dedicated to traditional Scottish music.
The group will perform May 10 at the Crocker Theater in Aptos as part of its spring concert series, “Stravaig.”
Founded in 1986 by renowned fiddler Alasdair Fraser, the ensemble now includes more than 200 members, with upwards of 65 musicians performing together onstage.
This year’s concerts are led by Caroline McCaskey, a national champion who is stepping into the leadership role for the first time.
“It’s like a big welcoming party with fiddles,” McCaskey said. “Everybody is invited.”
The performances blend traditional Scottish and Irish tunes with broader Celtic influences, featuring fiddles alongside cello, piano, guitar and percussion.
Bratt, who joined the group in the early 2000s, plays a key role as cello leader and arranger.
“They all have to play the same part or it sounds like a mess,” she said, explaining her work writing cello arrangements to unify the large ensemble.
Even though the performances in Boulder Creek and Aptos are vastly different, Bratt said she hopes audiences get very similar things out them.
“I hope people feel hope, joy, a love of rhythm,” she said. “And an appreciation for music they might not have heard before.”
The upcoming Concertino Strings performances are free to attend, with donations encouraged to support both the ensemble and improvements to the host church.