5 Minutes with . . . Fiddler Alasdair Fraser

By David Templeton | From the July/August 2025 issue of Strings

In 1986, Alasdair Fraser, then a sprightly 31 years old, placed an ad in a Bay Area newspaper calling for Scottish fiddle enthusiasts to join him for monthly, music-filled get-togethers. To his delight, a small group of people answered the call, and the San Francisco Scottish Fiddlers was born. Now, nearly 40 years later, the group has grown to over 300 people, and Fraser—who’s risen to international prominence as a player and promoter of traditional fiddle music—has decided to pass the reins of the organization to a younger player, the renowned multi-instrumentalist and 2019 US National Scottish Fiddle Champion Caroline McCaskey.

In April, Fraser performed a number of sold-out concerts in Northern California, where he lives, leading a large number of players from the Scottish Fiddlers for the last time. Within days, he was on tour with his longtime musical collaborator, Natalie Haas, having stated that though he was ending his time with the thriving nonprofit he founded four decades ago, he was definitely not retiring from his role as one of traditional music’s most enthusiastic and effective cheerleaders. I caught up to him in between shows in early May.

You are on the road, I understand. Where are you right at the moment?

Yes, we are, in fact, on the road. We had a beautiful gig last night in Rockport, Massachusetts, in one of the most special venues in the country, the Shalin Liu Performance Center, a gorgeous acoustical concert hall. Now we’re driving down to upper New York state for a string workshop at the Ashokan Center in Olivebridge. Then it’s back home to California, and then we’re off to the UK after that. By we I mean me and Natalie Haas, the cellist. We’ve been very busy, and we love it that way.

I’d say this is proof that, even after playing your last gig with the San Francisco Scottish Fiddlers last month, you clearly aren’t in retirement mode. Is it perhaps because of how busy you are that you decided to pass the reins of the Fiddlers to someone else?

You know, it’s many things. It’s been interesting to sift through it all. A large part of it has to do with nurturing, and I know that sounds idealistic, but, you know, I’ve been teaching for years, and I’ve been running fiddle camps, here in the US and back home in Scotland, and in Australia and Spain. Over 40 years now, I’ve been fortunate to witness wave after wave of young people getting interested in fiddle music and making it a part of their lives.

In many cases, they then become ambassadors of the music, going on to become professional players and whatnot. I just love that, but it doesn’t mean I have to be involved in it for the system to work. I’ve realized that I can sit back and watch what happens. I realized it was time to let someone else lead the Scottish Fiddlers, and Caroline McCaskey is a very talented young lady who grew up in the Fiddlers, which she joined when she was just a wee thing.

Caroline is very capable, and so fun-loving and such a great educator, and a wonderful player. So that’s it. She’s taking things from here, and yes, I will miss it, because I love it, but just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should just keep doing it forever. This was the right move at the right time, for me and for Caroline and for the Scottish Fiddlers.

What were those final performances like for you? I would assume it was at least a little bit emotional.

It was emotional, oh sure. There were over 80 of us onstage, playing by ear, and not just fiddles. There were fiddles and cellos and guitars and whatnot, and I just love taking that whole village of players into a room to play together. It’s ultimately about the community we’ve built and how that music we play together can be a motivator and a salve and a necessary part of our lives. So yes, the transition as I participated in that for the last time as the leader of the community, it was definitely emotional, and it was beautiful, and I know I will miss a lot of those people—but I will stay in touch. They’re just too much a part of my life now.

Have you ever tried to calculate how many people have been part of the Scottish Fiddlers since you founded it in 1986, or how many public performances you’ve played together over that time?

Well, it would be a very big number. We began in Sausalito, and we’ve done something for the public every year since then, often multiple gigs, so I’d have to do the math. But you know what’s amazing? It’s the exponential growth and power of all those people gathering to play together in the Fiddlers, but then gathering in little breakout groups on their own, practicing together and going on hikes together and sometimes forming little musical groups on the side that go out and do their own things at farmers markets or fairs and places like that. People just adopted it into their lives in ways that go far beyond our monthly meetings and annual concerts. So I can’t really quantify it at this point, but like I said, it would be a big number.

During last night’s concert in Massachusetts, I talked about how, as human beings, we have to gather. As people, as a society, we do better when we gather in community, and music has always been a great facilitator for that. It’s about questioning things together and finding solutions to problems together. And making music as a group, as a community, has always been a fantastic way to practice those skills.

So, having made it clear you are not retiring, what’s next for you? What does the future hold?

That’s the big question, isn’t it? What I love is the idea of creating some breathing room for myself, you know? There are things I want to do musically, and I’m not quite sure which of those I will do first. But I’m pretty busy, with plenty of gigs ahead of me on my schedule. I think I’d like to spend more time doing composition and playing other types of music. And now I’ll have the free time to do that. I kind of love the idea that next spring, when I’m not doing a bunch of big shows with the Scottish Fiddlers—and knowing that the group is in good hands with Caroline—all sorts of things are possible for me. But at the moment, I’m avoiding locking those possibilities down into specifics. I’m looking forward to discovering it as I move ahead into this next part of my life. 

That sounds like an exciting place to be.

It really is. There’s a philosophical thread to this whole thing. I suppose I’ve decided it’s time to learn new tricks. It’s why I’ve been emphasizing that the decision to hand the Scottish Fiddlers to someone else isn’t about retirement. I’m not giving up the music, that’s for sure. Music is there for life, you know? 

I’ve still got a lot of energy, and I have a lot of ideas, and I want to find out the best way to use all of that, rubbing up against new opportunities. And that’s definitely exciting. Creating something new, with creative people, discovering what’s possible over and over again, that is about the most exciting thing a person can do with their life.