Jamie Laval was no violin prodigy. In fact, he started playing quite late in life, at 16 years old.

“Right from the get-go I was practicing four hours a day. I even finished high school early so I could practice for seven hours a day,” said Laval, a graduate of the UW’s School of Music.

After high school, Laval studied at the Victoria Conservatory in Canada and then at the University of Washington. Trained as a classical musician, Laval became a “full-fledged symphony member” when he finished school.

But that isn’t what he’s doing now — now he is playing Celtic fiddle music and not only playing it, but recreating it.

“I ponder a lot about music education,” Laval said. “How is it that I was only exposed to classical music?”

After he finished at the UW, Laval went to Boston to continue his musical study, and though he did not end up finishing at the Conservatory, he was exposed to Scottish fiddle music.

“I’ve always been really inspired by groove-oriented music,” Laval said. “It is meant to be dance music for the peasants.”

Laval described the music he plays these days as “roots-based progressive, traditional Celtic music.” He further explained grassroots music as traditional dance music and his personal style as 40 percent Scottish and 40 percent Irish.

“Though we pay homage to the traditional manner, we stretch it enough that it gives ability to express the modern times,” Laval said about tagging his music as progressive. “Traffic, politics, issues that are all part of our psyches can be expressed.”

Laval and those he works with seek out old tunes, “modest 32-measure melodies,” some of which are hundreds of years old. They then create a larger scale arrangement from the simple theme and interpret the melody.

“Melodies weave in and out,” Laval explained. “We also work with key relationships for bigger surprise moments.”

The music is fun and jaunty and, even for those who have listened to Celtic music, full of surprises.

Laval and his musical partner Ashley Broder, who plays the mandolin, have another CD coming out soon and have expanded into a teaching role.

“We’ve been invited by schools, universities and others, to teach this ethnic method,” Laval said. “We are in negotiation to offer something at the UW.”

Though his career is not a traditional one, he described it as “very violinistic” and pointed out that what he is doing now didn’t exist when he was learning.

Broder met Laval in a jam session at a fiddle contest. She has been playing the mandolin for about 13 years. In addition to playing with Laval, Broder writes a “neo-classical kind of music.”

“I started on violin, but with mandolin, you don’t have to worry about intonation,” she said.

Laval’s musical history is mainly classical. He worked with the Northwest Chamber Orchestra and did many soundtrack recordings on which he played both solos and in the orchestra. He has also subbed with the Seattle Symphony, played regularly with the Northwest Ballet, Victoria Symphony, Boston Pro Orchestra and in smaller regional orchestras.

He will be performing with Broder Sunday, Feb. 24, at ArtsWest in West Seattle.

Though he still enjoys classical music and listens to it regularly, he feels that fiddle music is his calling.

“There is not a difference between what I play for work and what I love,” Laval said.

Visit JamieLaval.com to hear more.