![]() The following year, she spent four weeks as the opening act for the Chieftains on their tour of the United States. In 1995, MacMaster performed for more than 80,000 people as the opening act for Carlos Santana in Chattanooga, TN. MacMaster has maintained such a busy schedule as a performer that she had to turn down an invitation to be a featured musician in the Irish music and dance production Lord of the Dance. The album was dedicated to the memory of MacMaster's grandmother, Margaret Ann Beaton, who would often sing Gaelic lyrics to songs that MacMaster was learning on the fiddle. MacMaster was also named Fiddler of the Year by the Canadian Country Music Association. In addition to hosting the East Coast Music Awards, MacMaster received awards as "Female Artist of the Year, Roots/Traditional Artist of the Year and Instrumental Artist of the Year. MacMaster's first album released by Warner Brothers Canada, No Boundaries, included "Drunken Piper" (featuring vocals by Cookie Rankin of the Rankin Family), and established her as one of the top musicians in Canada. Tracks from MacMaster's first two albums were reissued by Rounder as A Compilation in 1997. She took formal lessons along with her cousin, Ashley MacIsaac, with whom she played often as a youngster.Īfter releasing two self-produced cassette-only albums - 4 On the Floor in 1989 and Road to the Isle in 1990 - MacMaster expanded her following with her first release in the United States, Fit as a Fiddle, which received a East Coast Music Award as Best Roots/Traditional Album of 1992. Inspired by the musical members of her family, MacMaster began playing fiddle at the age of nine on an instrument given her by a great-uncle. Whether performing with her band, featuring guitar, piano, bass, drums and percussion, or with a classical orchestra such as the Edinburgh Symphony, MacMaster has thrilled audiences with her exciting fiddling and dynamic stage persona. With milestones including another hotly anticipated Christmas tour, an accompanying TV special, a pending third installment of their Greenbridge Celtic Folk Fest, and a recent Road Gold Award from the Canadian Independent Music Association, Natalie MacMaster and Donnell Leahy are consistent favorites of Center for the Arts audiences.The niece of influential Cape Breton fiddler Buddy MacMaster, Natalie MacMaster has turned the music of Cape Breton, an island off the east coast of Canada near Nova Scotia, into an international phenomenon. Widely recognized as one of the best fiddlers in the world, his high-energy playing style makes him a highly popular performer. ![]() She has also won two JUNO Awards and 11 East Coast Music Awards, was nominated for a Grammy.ĭonnell is the former music leader of the internationally acclaimed family group Leahy, winner of three JUNO Awards. Throughout MacMaster’s 25-year recording career, she has released 11 albums notching sales of more than 200,000 copies. Their synergy was brilliantly showcased on the pair’s first recorded collaboration, 2015’s Bob Ezrin-produced album One, a crowning achievement complementing combined album sales of over one million, a CV listing cellist Yo-Yo Ma, bluegrass star Alison Krauss, and banjo ace Béla Fleck as past collaborators (and Shania Twain and The Chieftains as fans) plus a devoted audience stretching from Sydney, Nova Scotia to Sydney, Australia. Though MacMaster and Leahy followed different trajectories to this point - she a Cape Breton native who could step-dance before she could walk, he the oldest brother of the acclaimed family group Leahy - both have confidently crested the traditional music peak. “It has carried me through my childhood, through my teens, my young adult life, my married life and now motherhood. “I’m continually amazed by what the fiddle has brought to my life,” MacMaster offers. While both were already stars in their own light, propelling their dazzling careers since childhood, the award-winning fiddle virtuosos have cemented their status as Canada’s reigning couple of Celtic music. To fans of fiddle music, Natalie MacMaster and Donnell Leahy need no introduction.
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