October 06, 2003 -

OTTAWA -- Cape Breton fiddling sensation Natalie MacMaster brings her exceptional band to a spectacular New Year's Eve celebration in Southam Hall on December 31, 2003. Joined on stage for the first time since their marriage by her equally talented husband -- fiddler and composer Donnell Leahy - this dazzling duo will truly bring in the New Year in style!

The National Arts Centre gratefully acknowledges the generous support of our New Year's Eve Media Partner, the Ottawa Citizen.

Natalie MacMaster has won two Juno Awards for Best Instrumental Album, eleven East Coast Music Awards, several Canadian Country Music Awards for Fiddler of the Year, as well as ‘Entertainer of the Year' awards. She was also nominated for her first Grammy in 2000 in the Best Traditional Folk Album category for her album My Roots Are Showing. Natalie MacMaster draws huge crowds wherever she appears and she played to rave reviews and sold-out capacity crowds (over 6,000 people) in early May as part of the National Arts Centre's hugely successful Atlantic Scene festival. Husband Donnell's family band, Leahy, is equally popular, so this special New Year's Eve performance is expected to sell out very quickly. Priority tickets go on sale to NAC subscribers on October 9 and tickets go on sale to the general public on October 27.

Details of the show in the NAC's Fourth Stage and about the lavish four-course meal and special post-performance New Year's Eve party in the NAC foyer will be released at a later date.

In an interview with Vancouver's Catholine Butler, Natalie MacMaster revealed, "Donnell and I play very different fiddle styles and so when we do get up on the stage together we want to do it right. Actually, we have started working on writing some material that we can feel good about for the day when we do take the stage together. We're both in love with the creative side of music so Lord knows what'll happen".

Born in Inverness County, Nova Scotia in 1973, extraordinary fiddler and step-dancer Natalie MacMaster gives credit for her emergence in the 1990s to the Cape Breton Fiddler's Association, which was started in the early 1970s after a documentary, The Vanishing Cape Breton Fiddler, was screened. This led to a revival in this most dynamic of musical cultures, and Natalie MacMaster is just one of several young musicians to be inspired by the new climate. Growing up in a musical family, she began playing the fiddle at age nine and made her debut in traditional square dances and variety concerts. As is traditional with Cape Breton music, her playing is intrinsically linked to dancing and gaiety. "The rhythms you use for the feet are the same as you use for the fiddle, the same with the piano. It's all tied in, the language (Gaelic), the dancing, the piano, the fiddle . . . everything matches," says MacMaster. Indeed, she only began to learn the fiddle after becoming a proficient dancer. She took informal lessons for three years, learning the individual Cape Breton approach to the violin, which includes a distinctive bowing technique, and repetitive structures known as ‘cuts' (triplets). She began to play outside Nova Scotia at age 12, touring the festival circuit throughout Canada and the United States. Her first record was issued in 1989, when she was just 16. It was followed two years later by Road To The Isle, which garnered several East Coast Music Awards, including Instrumental Artist Of The Year and the Roots/Traditional category.

Donnell Leahy was one of 11 musical Leahy siblings who grew up on a farm in Lakefield, Ontario. His father taught the family to play fiddle, while his Cape Breton-born mother Julie passed on her singing and step dancing skills. The family band exploded onto the Celtic music scene in 1997 with their hit song The Call To Dance, going on to win Juno awards, crack world music charts, and tour with Shania Twain. Natalie MacMaster and Donnell Leahy were married in Creignish, Nova Scotia on October 5, 2002.

Natalie MacMaster's discography includes Four On The Floor (cassette, 1989), Road To The Isle (cassette, 1991), Fit As A Fiddle (1994), No Boundaries (1996), My Roots Are Showing (1998), In My Hands (including MacMaster's first ever vocal performance on the title track, 1999), Live (2002). Her videography includes Fiddle Lesson With Natalie MacMaster (1997). Fans can look forward to the release of Natalie MacMaster's new CD and DVD, Blueprint, which will be released in Canada on November 4. Recorded in Nashville, MacMaster says "This CD has quite a different vibe for me, I guess all my records do tend to have a different theme, except my traditional tunes, or traditional CDs. This recording … has some big cat players on it like Bela Fleck, Sam Bush and Jerry Douglas, along with a lot of other great musicians."

New Year's Eve celebrations take place on December 31, 2003 at the National Arts Centre. Tickets are $100, $110, $120 (all inclusive) and are available at the NAC Box Office (in person) and through Ticketmaster (with surcharges) at (613) 755-1111; Ticketmaster may also be accessed through the NAC's web-site at www.nac-cna.ca.

Photos can be viewed and downloaded at: www.nac-cna.ca/media/

Information:
Gerald Morris,
Marketing and Media Relations
NAC Dance Department,
(613) 947-7000, ext. 249
gmorris@nac-cna.ca

Artists' Biographies

NATALIE MacMASTER
She first picked up a fiddle at the age of nine and hasn't looked back. The niece of famed Cape Breton fiddler Buddy MacMaster, Natalie quickly became a major talent in her own right. After winning numerous East Coast Music Awards for her early traditional Cape Breton recordings, she began taking Celtic music to new heights with albums like In My Hands, which featured elements of jazz, Latin music and guest vocals by Alison Krauss. To her accomplishments, she's added two Juno Awards for Best Instrumental Album and several Canadian Country Music Awards for Fiddler of the Year. She has shared the live performance stage with acts ranging from Carlos Santana to the Chieftains, Paul Simon to Luciano Pavarotti, Alison Krauss to Mark O'Connor and dozens of world-class symphony orchestras. She has performed on ABC Television's New Year's Eve broadcast at the special request of one of her greatest fans, host Peter Jennings. She's created, financed and produced her very own nationally broadcast network TV special. Two of her CD's have charted on Billboard's Top 20 Selling World Music charts. Four of her previous five CD releases have been certified ‘gold' (50,000 + sales) in Canada. Her exhaustive touring schedule has taken her from stages in Hawaii to Antarctica, Alaska to Japan, from Scotland to Italy, Germany to the Hollywood Bowl and beyond. For every contemporary album, MacMaster is quick to respond with a traditional one, such as My Roots Are Showing. Her last recording, LIVE, was two albums in one; the first disc showcased her whole touring band, including the big-concert sounds of synthesizer, drums and electric bass, while the other featured a down-home Cape Breton square dance with just piano and guitar. MacMaster, who plays with what the Los Angeles Times described as "irresistible, keening passion," thrives in both settings. With Blueprint about to be released, MacMaster is once again pushing the boundaries of traditional music, fusing her brilliant Cape Breton fiddling with the sounds of banjo, dobro and mandolin, as played by the cream of America's traditional acoustic community. "Alison Krauss was the artist who first got me listening to bluegrass music," recalls MacMaster. "With this album, maybe I can do the same thing and attract people to traditional Cape Breton music."

DONNELL LEAHY and LEAHY
Leahy, the awe-inspiring eight-member brother and sister act from Canada, are a whirlwind triple threat of fiddle-driven music, dance, and vocals augmented by keyboards and percussion who leave onlookers breathless from the moment they hit the stage. At the center of this exceptional group is the oldest brother Donnell, who is internationally proclaimed as one of the best fiddle players on the planet. There is a dynamic that takes place with Donnell, live or on record, that connects eight different musicians and the audience with genuine, spontaneous, and spectacular energy and excitement. The raven-haired Leahy Clan grew up in Lakefield, Ontario. Ancestor Michael Leahy settled there in 1825 from Ireland and brought with him a deep family musical tradition. Each of the Leahy children learned to play fiddle from their father, while their mother, a champion step-dancer born and raised in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, taught them to sing, dance and play piano. As teenagers on break from school or farm work, the siblings gained popularity touring as the ‘Leahy Family', traveling across Canada to play at fairs and festivals. Their recognition increased with the release of a student documentary about the family entitled Leahy: Music Most of All. The film won an Academy Award in 1985 for Best Foreign Student Film. In 1996, the group burst onto the international scene with the release of their debut self-titled CD. Subsequent touring earned Leahy a total of three Juno Awards - as Best Instrumental Group and Best New Group in 1997, and an award for Best Country Group or Duo in 1998. It was on the 1998 Juno Award telecast when Leahy's live performance was seen by pop/country star Shania Twain, who invited the group to join her upcoming two-year worldwide tour. Leahy was instantaneously catapulted into an international spotlight, performing in stadiums and amphitheatres, where they were rewarded with standing ovations each and every night. Leahy played 175 tour dates with Twain and appeared on her two major U.S. television network specials. The Leahy recording went on to sell over 100,000 units in the U.S. and 170,000 units in Canada. In 2001, Leahy released Lakefield, their second CD, internationally. The band is currently on an extensive 70-date U.S. tour lasting from October through February 2004. Leahy will release their third studio album in January 2004.