MacMasterful musician: Cape Breton fiddler bringing award-winning style, traditions to Hancher concert

By Diana Nollen

Fiddler Natalie MacMaster grew up in a house full of music, steeped in the traditions of her Scottish Canadian isle.

And in the seasonal spirit of sharing, she's bringing that gift to her Hancher concert Saturday night at the Riverside Casino Event Center.

“We're making every effort to bring a piece of Cape Breton to Iowa - with a few surprises,” MacMaster, 37, says by phone from her current home in the village of Douro, about two hours east of Toronto.

Even though she has moved considerably inland from her childhood home on Nova Scotia's Cape Breton Island, she still has a house full of music, with her husband, renowned fiddler Donnell Leahy, and their three children, daughters ages 9 months and nearly 4 and a son age 2.

“Christmas is not necessarily about Scottish traditions for us,” she says, “but it is traditional. We celebrate Christ at Christmas and all that goes with that. Mass is the height of the celebration, but all the other things are very typical for most people: Santa Claus, special baking, music, house parties. We always have live fiddle music - it's just a given.

“And the buzz of getting hooked into the material side of Christmas that's so very wonderful. I love to shop. I always say I'm going to do it differently next year, but year after year, the same thing happens,” she says with a laugh. “We listen to Christmas CDs, too, from Frank Sinatra to Mariah Carey.”

What does it mean to be a Cape Breton fiddler?

“It means you're deeply rooted in tradition and culture; that your style is one that is homegrown; that you learned from your environment and your relatives and lessons, but mostly from your environment,” she says. “You play music that is raw and unrefined and full of feeling and life and history. It's rooted in Celtic and Gaelic traditions. Our roots are Scottish.”

MacMaster picked up a fiddle at age 9, just part of a natural progression for the lass who grew up surrounded by fiddlers, including her uncle, master fiddler Buddy MacMaster, and her father, who was her first teacher.

But all the fiddles in their homes were too big for little Natalie. Then a gift arrived that would help chart her course.

“A grand uncle sent a fiddle to Cape Breton from Boston. He said any one of the MacMaster children who wants to play this can. It was three-quarter size,” MacMaster says. “I tried and it fit perfectly, so I said, ‘I want to learn.'”

After studying with her father for six months, young Natalie began two years of weekly lessons with noted Cape Breton teacher Stan Chapman. By age 16, she had recorded her first album and has just finished her 11th recording, due out in the spring.

Before the music was in her hands, it was in her feet. Her mom, “a notable dancer in her day,” began teaching her step dancing at age 5. MacMaster has been known to toss a little step dancing into her concerts, too.

Now that she's the mom, she has scaled back the scope of her touring. Where she used to do 250 concerts a year, she now does about 70, with the children in tow.

“I bring them along. They don't need to be without me,” she says. “We're lucky that we can take them with us. Donnell and I generally do not tour together. I play with my band, he plays with his. We've spent our lives developing our own music careers, but it's very appealing for us to play together - especially with the children, it means us all going out together.

“In December, Donnell with his family will be going one way, I'm going another. The baby and the oldest go with me,” she says. Their son will go with Dad. “In January, February and March, we'll do shows together.”

MacMaster's award-winning style has captured the attention of other storied musicians, from Alison Krauss to Carlos Santana. She has played for Pavarotti, performed with The Chieftains, collaborated with Bela Fleck and recorded a jig and reel for Yo-Yo Ma's 2008 Christmas CD.

But the biggest accolade came when she received her country's highest civilian honor, the Order of Canada, bestowed by Governor General Michaelle Jean in 2007.

“I still don't know how I managed to get that,” she says. “It was shocking and beautiful and a complete honor.”

ARTS EXTRAArtist information: www.nataliemacmaster.com

What: Hancher presents Natalie MacMaster, “Christmas in Cape Breton”

When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 5

Where: Riverside Casino Event Center, 3184 Highway 22, Riverside

Tickets: $10 to $45 at the Hancher Box Office in Old Capitol Mall, downtown Iowa City, (319) 335-1160, 1-(800) HANCHER or www.hancher.uiowa.edu/tickets.html