An afternoon of Northwest Celtic instrumental music is lined up for this weekend at Quimper Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Port Townsend.

Although she makes her home in Olympia, lifelong violinist Susan McCroskey Burke traces her ancestral origins to Scotland and Ireland, which inspired the release of “Journey Home,” her debut CD of Celtic fiddle music, in 2008.

John Whelan has been playing the Irish button accordion for more than 50 years. He moved to the United States in 1980, then to Vashon, Washington, specifically in 2018. He was raised in London by Irish parents, which inspired him to record his first album, “Pride of Wexford,” at the age of 14, in honor of his father, Dennis, who was born in County Wexford.

Burke familiarized herself with her ancestry through a year in Ireland as a college student, which she’s since followed with frequent return visits. She's also played with musicians who hailed from Scots and Irish traditions and who connected her with Cape Breton and Romanian influences, as well as contra dance.

Burke credits much of her “spirited” fiddle repertoire to the influence of the “family” of skilled Puget Sound musicians whom she’s collected and accompanied over the past two decades. That includes Laurie Riley, Jerry Holland, Carl MacKenzie, and Tommy and Siobhan Peoples, in particular, helping her develop “a seasoned blend” of Celtic traditional music.

“I’m planning another trip to Ireland this fall,” Burke said, expressing a sentiment she credited to fellow American-born Irish-style fiddler Randal Bays: “If you weren’t born there, it’s not too late to go back.”

Riley, a member of the QUUF in Port Townsend, described Burke’s playing as “high-energy yet sensitive.”

Burke acknowledged the powerful rhythm of dance in much of the music she plays, which she described as complicated enough to allow for individual interpretations by different players. She likened it to “creating a quilt out of a bunch of already beautiful pieces of fabric,” even as those tunes tend to “lift you out of your seat.”

Burke and Whelan’s experiences with Port Townsend have primarily been limited to Centrum’s Fiddle Tunes, at which Burke played and Whelan “hung out.”

Although Whelan made many return visits to Ireland in his youth, he emphasized that London itself hosted a significant population of immigrant Irish musicians at that time, “these legends I got to grow up learning from,” whose talent drew other musicians from around the world to their open sessions.

“It was where I met American musicians for the first time,” said Whelan, who nonetheless found himself drawing strongly from the rural agrarian lives of his relatives back in Ireland. “I would work on their farms during the summers. I respected all the people I met there, because they lived hard lives. Life in Ireland was tough in the 1970s. The ‘Celtic Tiger’ economy didn’t come roaring in until the 1990s.”

Whelan, a seven-time All-Ireland champion, has twice been voted Ireland's Best Musician, in addition to having recorded more than 15 CDs, and having ranked in the top 10 of the Billboard World Music Charts.

Whelan took the time to praise Burke for her “steadfast commitment to cultivating the traditions” of Celtic music,” asserting that “we need people like her, if we’re going to continue our legacy.”

Riley offered plaudits to both Burke and Whelan for the musical traditions they’ve carried on.

“This is not the commercialized Irish drinking songs or the pseudo-Irish melodies you hear on St. Paddy's Day, but the true traditional Celtic instrumental music from Ireland, Scotland and Cape Breton,” Riley said. “Some of these tunes were shared by the fireside 300 years ago or more. Most are learned by sitting knee-to-knee with other players.”

Riley added, “Many of these tunes have become favorites far from their places of origin, being brought by immigrants or travelers, and taking on new regional flavors. Many of the tunes Susan and John play today reflect these migrations.”