The Valley of the Moon Scottish fiddle camp is nestled in the Santa Cruz mountains of California.In that bucolic setting, more than 200 students spend a week camping, swimming, hiking and playing their fiddles day and night.Fraser started the music camp 29 years ago, shortly after he moved to the San Francisco Bay Area from his native Scotland.His desire to share his music grew out of childhood memories from the 1950s and 60s, when traditional music was suppressed in Scottland's schools and universities.Fraser felt pressured to conform to British culture. People were afraid to speak with a Scottish accent."That hurt me to realize that, because what I want is justice, for the human soul to be allowed to flourish and for people to be able to express themselves," he says."And so shy, introverted little me, with a fiddle in my hand,I feel compelled to ask questions that I wouldn't normally…saying 'Why are we not playing these tunes?'In the 1980s, Fraser found only a handful of people who knew Scottish fiddling, with its distinctive driving, syncopated rhythms, double-stops and use of staccato.He hoped Valley of the Moon would introduce Americans to Scottish music and get them to share his passion.
