By Jon Chown
The San Francisco Scottish Fiddlers will be coming to Aptos in May as part of a three-city concert series led by fiddler and music director Caroline McCaskey.
The group will perform at 2 p.m. May 10 at the Crocker Theater in Aptos, the final stop of its “Stravaig” spring concert series, which also includes performances May 8 in Davis and May 9 in Berkeley.
Caroline McCaskey
The fiddling ensemble was founded in 1986 by legendary Scottish fiddler Alasdair Fraser and includes more than 200 members overall, with more than 65 performers expected onstage for the concerts.
The spring concert series is the organization’s major annual event.
McCaskey, a 2019 U.S. National Scottish Fiddle Champion, is leading the annual spring performances for the first time, taking over for Fraser, who turns 71 in April.
McCaskey said it is a huge honor. She joined the group about 25 years ago at age 12 after hearing her mother play Fraser’s records. His first album, “Portrait of a Scottish Fiddler,” was released in 1982 a year after he moved to California.
“My parents loved to listen to music and my mom loved Alasdair Fraser, and as a young kid, thought I needed to do that. It’s so compelling, the Scottish music. I still feel that way about it,” she said. “If you were to tell 11-year-old Catherine that she would step in for Alasdair someday, it would blow her mind.”
The concert has a strong local connection: Santa Cruz County cellist Renata Bratt serves as the ensemble’s cello leader and will be among the featured performers in Aptos.
Bratt, an educator and composer who has played with the group since 2004, has performed in a range of musical styles from classical and jazz to folk traditions. “She’s fantastic,” McCaskey said.
The ensemble features fiddles, cello, piano, guitars and percussion performing traditional Scottish and Irish repertoire alongside music from other Celtic-influenced traditions. McCaskey described the performance as “like a big welcoming party with fiddles.” It will include dance tunes and lyrical ballads drawn primarily from Scottish fiddle traditions.
“Everybody is invited to the party. They can expect to see people gathering in the way humans always have to share stories and song and dance,” she said.
The San Francisco Scottish Fiddlers rehearse monthly throughout the year, and with more than 50 musicians on stage at once, McCaskey said it is a force.
“There’s just nothing like it,” she said. “Fiddles, of course, are exciting to listen to. When you get us all tougher the energy is like nothing else.”
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Tickets and information are available online at www.sfscottishfiddlers.org
TOP PHOTO: Caroline McCaskey will lead the San Francisco Scottish Fiddlers when they appear in Aptos on May 8. • Photo Credit: Amy Luper