Natalie MacMaster & Donnell Leahy (CAN)

This time with her husband and musical partner Donnell Leahy.

In the mid-nineties, fiddler Natalie MacMaster was in the vanguard of the young generation of traditional musicians from Cape Breton, on Canada's eastern seaboard. The music was brought to the island by Scots exiles who settled and fostered the growth of their traditions. Natalie MacMaster inherited the music from her father, the legendary fiddler Buddy MacMaster. She first appeared at Tønder Festival in 1995. The fast reels delighted the Tønder audiences, and in the following years, the young Cape Breton musicians were a constant hit at the festival. Amog them was Ashley MacIsaac, Natalie MacMaster's cousin. Natalie MacMaster has several JUNO nominations to her name, and has twice won the award for Best Instrumental Album, in 1999 and 2000. She was also nominated for an American Grammy prize in the category Best Traditional Album for My Roots Are Showing from 2000. Since the turn of the millenium, Natalie MacMaster has been married to fiddler Donnell Leahy, who enjoyed great success with the Leahy family band. In 2023, the couple released the album Canvas, on which Grammy winner Rhiannon Giddens also plays. Her only festival in Denmark in 2025.