On Saturday, September 8, 2012 at 7 PM, the Museum of Making Music presents the Global Spotlight Concert Series featuring premier Celtic violinist, Jamie Laval, who will showcase the traditional music of Scotland, Ireland, and Brittany.  Jamie will be joined by multi-instrumentalist Zac Leger.

One of the premier Celtic violinists on the international music scene today, Jamie Laval creates rapt audiences with his intensely passionate performances of traditional music of Scotland, Ireland, Brittany and Quebec, rendered with hints of classical refinement and ethnic music from around the world.

Jamie is heralded as "One of North America's finest practitioners of traditional Scottish music" (San Jose Mercury News) and "The next Alasdair Fraser" (Press and Post). The Asheville Citizen-Times writes, "One of the hottest fiddlers out there...this act has been turning heads wherever it plays."

What sets Jamie's music in a class by itself is the nuance, virtuosity, and musical craftsmanship he brings to an ancient art form. Simple Celtic folk melodies are transformed into epic tonal narratives which take the listener on an emotional journey from quiet melancholy to wild jubilation.

Jamie's accessible sound appeals to families, youth, seniors, and devotees of ethnic, jazz, and classical music.

The making of his trademark style began at the Victoria Conservatory of Music where he studied classical violin. Later he pursued careers as a professional symphony musician, recording studio artist, improvising violinist, and contra dance fiddler. But his passion for the haunting sounds

of rural Irish and Scottish folk music eventually usurped all other preoccupations, and he has devoted himself exclusively to Celtic music ever since.

In 2002 Jamie won the U.S. National Scottish Fiddle Championship and subsequently embarked on a full time touring career which today includes 100 engagements per year throughout the U.S. and Scotland.

Jamie now lives in Asheville, North Carolina and takes a keen interest in the musical and historical ties that connect his Appalachian home with the dispersion of Celtic peoples from their original homeland. He serves on the faculty of The Swannanoa Gathering, a summer institute for traditional arts and music.

His critically esteemed debut CD recording, Shades of Green, airs regularly on many NPR programs nationwide. Meanwhile, Zephyr In The Confetti Factory, his duo album with mandolinist Ashley Broder, won Best World Traditional Song in the 2007 Independent Music Awards Vox Populi.

Jamie has also collaborated on numerous television, film, and CD recordings, including Dave Matthews' Some Devil, Warner Bros. Pictures' Wild America, and WB-TV series Everwood.

Recent live performances include the Bijou Theatre (Knoxville), Wintergrass Festival (Tacoma), the Freight & Salvage (Berkeley), Swallow Hill Productions (Denver), Club Passim (Boston), The Fringe Festival (Edinburgh), the NBC Today Show, The West Coast Live radio show, and a private appearance for Her Majesty the Queen.

Largely self-taught, Zac Leger is a multi-instrumentalist original from Eastern Tennessee but now residing in Los Angeles. Zac was a gold medalist in the 2003 Mid-Atlantic Fleadh, taking several other medals on other instruments. He also holds a senior All-Ireland piping title. He has played and toured with a number of groups: Pictou, Sigean, Glen Road, The Border Collies and Finnegan's Wake. He has also performed, played and recorded with many of the leading lights in Irish and Celtic music including fiddler Liz Carroll, guitarist John Doyle, guitarists Al Pettiway and Amy White, cittern-player Joseph Sobol, piper Neil Anderson, Northern Irish uilleann Piper Brendan Monaghan and old-time fiddling legend Ralph Blizard.