Great Barrington — When two of the best fiddle players in the world marry and have children, you should watch for a gang of superfiddlers to appear in fairly short order. And when they do, you can bill that gang as the MacMaster Leahy Kids. They are the children of Canadian fiddle stars Natalie MacMaster and Donnell Leahy, and when their gang reached critical mass, they grabbed half a dozen fiddles and hit the road. They have been touring together ever since, and they are coming to the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center on December 17 to present “A Celtic Family Christmas.”
This is the perfect event for aspiring young fiddle players, whose eyes will widen when they see kids their own age happily sawing away on the Mahaiwe stage and step dancing like pros.
As you would exect, Sunday’s program will include a family-friendly mix of traditional carols like “What Child Is This” and “Silent Night,” along with holiday-themed songs like “White Christmas” and “Up on the Housetop.” Perhaps not so expected are the Celtic-inflected arrangements and feats of virtuosic display that characterize the musicianship of Canada’s reigning couple of Celtic music.
Dance, an important ingredient in Celtic music performance, takes a prominent place in MacMaster-Leahy shows, with the whole family joining in. Step dancing is always charming because it evinces a certain innocence and gaiety that children seem uniquely equipped to convey. The step-dancing seen in Scotland today was learned from Cape Breton step dancers.
A superstar in the Celtic music world, Natalie MacMaster was born on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada, to a family of fiddlers descended from Gaelic-speaking emigrants who brought fiddle music across the Atlantic from regions in the Scottish Highlands and the Outer Hebrides. The Scots-Gaelic language is key, because Cape Breton fiddle music has been influenced by the variations in pitch and tone characteristic of the way Scottish Gaelic is spoken. MacMaster made her performing debut at the age of nine at a square dance in Glencoe Mills, Nova Scotia, and released her first album, “Four on the Floor,” at age 16. Her uncle is the late renowned Cape Breton fiddler Buddy MacMaster, and her cousins Ashley MacIsaac and Andrea Beaton are well known fiddlers.
Donnel Leahy also comes from a prominent Cape Breton musical family. The Leahy family, billing themselves simply as “Leahy,” have been touring Canada and internationally since the early 1980s, when they were known as The Leahy Family. Oddly, they won a Juno award in 1998 for Best New Group after many years of touring and recording—but also a Juno for Best Instrumental Artist. Donnell is the band’s most famous member.
Hear Natalie MacMaster, Donnell Leahy, and their talented offspring at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, 14 Castle Street, Great Barrington, on Sunday, December 17. Tickets: $34 and up ($15 under age 31). For information and tickets, visit the Mahaiwe website or call (413) 528-0100.
