Some siblings get mad when one copies the other. However, in the Gothard house, older sister Greta is grateful Willow and Solana followed in her footsteps.
Now, the three Edmonds residents take their Irish step-dancing skills and fiddle and violin playing all over the country and into the studio, where they are working on their fourth CD as The Gothard Sisters.
They are also one of the featured youth performers at tonight’s eighth annual More Music at The Moore concert.
“It was a kind of dominoes,” Greta Gothard said in a phone interview. “I started it. I was home-schooled, but my mom said I had to pick some lesson outside of home to do on the side and I picked violin and both my sisters copied me, and it just went from there. For a lot of families that’s hard to do (without fighting), but we’ve always gotten along really well, so that’s been lucky for us.”
And this classically trained violin trio is excited about performing for the first time at The Moore.
More Music at The Moore features more than 30 of this region’s finest young musicians who will mix it up with diverse music styles such as pop, indie rock, Irish fiddle and strings. Musicians really do mix it up with the theme being that they use their own style to play three different core pieces: a piece from Bach, Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now” and Stevi Wonder’s “Living for the City.”
“It will be really exciting to see what kind of music we can all make together,” Greta Gothard said. “It’s based on a very original concept and it’s going to be an original concert, so people will hear something they’ve never heard before.”
Greta Gothard, 22; Willow, 19; and Solana, 13, know how to be original. They’ve based their musical ideas and success on the concept of not limiting themselves to the traditional.
For instance, when they tour the Midwest this summer, they will change up their Irish step-dancing routine to include a cowboy segment complete with the appropriate attire.
“It’s not strictly Irish but mostly fiddle,” Greta Gothard said.
The Gothard Sisters will focus on their fiddle playing for tonight’s performance.
More Music is an annual celebration of the musical talent of youth and provides musicians of all styles the chance to make original music together in a cross-cultural, collaborative way. The players are mentored with some of Seattle’s highest profile artists and musicians, with past mentors including drummers for the bands Santana and YES, the guitarist for the group The Presidents of the United States of America, and local band Schoolyard Heroes.
This year produced an abundance of family acts, including the Gothards and another sister act and a brother-sister duo. The 30 young musicians range in age from 11 to 21 years old.
Theresa Goffredo: 425-339-3424; goffredo@heraldnet.com.
More Music at The Moore
7:30 tonight at The Moore, 1932 Second Ave., Seattle. Tickets are $15 and $12. Call 877-784-4849, go to www.STGpresents.org, or go to the box office. For more information on The Gothard Sisters, visit www.gothardsisters.com.
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