HAAS Sisters

Natalie (cello) and Brittany (fiddle) Haas, American acoustic string musicians and composers are coming to Paducah for workshop/performance!

Sisters Natalie (cello) and Brittany (fiddle) Haas began their musical lives together, filling their childhood home with Bach suites and old-time tunes alike. It was on their own, however-following divergent paths through disparate musical traditions, countries, and cultures-that they both arrived as virtuosi and composers at the highest levels of contemporary string music. Fans of acoustic music can hardly mention one without referencing the other's work. It is a collaboration a lifetime in the making, and a music encompassing travels through time and through the world. From Nashville to Norway, the Celtic Isles to California, Natalie and Brittany have absorbed, adapted, and made their own world of music. The result? HAAS.

Natalie Haas is one of the most sought-after cellists playing traditional music today. Credited with putting cello on the map of contemporary Celtic music, she brings a wealth of world influences to her instrument, fashioning a tone and rhythmic sense that transcend any single tradition. Along with her longtime collaborator Alasdair Fraser, with whom she has toured for over 26 years and released seven albums, Natalie has charted a new course through the string music of Scotland, Ireland, Spain, and beyond—all without losing the influence of classical technique or her American roots. She and her fiddling sister Brittany Haas (Hawktail, Punch Brothers, Crooked Still, the Dave Rawlings Machine) have just released an album together and have also been touring as a duo for the last several years in Europe, Australia and the US. Natalie continues to be in high demand as a studio musician and has been a guest artist on over 100 albums, including those of Cape Breton fiddler Natalie MacMaster, Irish greats Altan, Solas, and Liz Carroll, and Americana icon Dirk Powell. Through her skills as an educator, Natalie has inspired a whole new generation of young cellists in folk music at fiddle camps across the globe.

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Brittany Haas is widely regarded as one of the most influential fiddlers of her generation. Born in Northern California, Brittany grew up honing her craft at string camps nationwide, and developed her unique style of fiddling at the influence of her mentors, Bruce Molsky and Darol Anger. A prodigious youth, Haas began touring with Darol Anger’s Republic of Strings at the age of fourteen. At seventeen, she released her debut, self-titled solo album (produced by Anger). Haas continued to tour and record while simultaneously earning a degree in Evolutionary Biology at Princeton University (where she also minored in Music Performance). It was during her time at Princeton that Brittany was asked to join the seminal “chamber-grass” band Crooked Still, with whom she has made four recordings and toured the world. She has performed on Late Night With David Letterman and Saturday Night Live as part of Steve Martin’s bluegrass band, and features on Martin’s Grammy-winning album “The Crow: New Songs for the 5-String Banjo.” Over the years, she has performed with Bela Fleck, Abigail Washburn, Tony Trischka, Yonder Mountain String Band, The Waybacks, Alasdair Fraser & Natalie Haas, her own band Hawktail, the Dave Rawlings Machine (featuring Gillian Welch), and more. In the fall of 2016, Haas began performing as part of the house band for Live From Here (formerly known as ‘A Prairie Home Companion’) hosted by Chris Thile and in 2023, she was asked to join Thile’s the Punch Brothers. Now residing in Nashville, TN, Brittany also continues to collaborate with Swedish fiddler Lena Jonsson, percussive dancer Nic Gareiss, and guitarist Ben Garnett. In addition to her work as a performer, Haas is an instructor at various string camps across the globe as well an online teaching school in bluegrass fiddle through ArtistWorks, sharing her knowledge and passion in hopes of inspiring the next generation of fiddle players.

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WORKSHOP: Learn a tune by ear, delve deep into stylistic ideas including left and right hand techniques, and explore all the ways to provide back up for it including harmonies, riffs, basic chordal substitutions, shuffling, chopping, and creating a cohesive arrangement with many repetitions of the same melody. All bowed stringed instruments welcome.