Natalie MacMaster Live and in Person

On Wednesday evening, March 5th, Kim and I got to go see Nova Scotia fiddler, Natalie MacMaster at Strathmore Hall in Bethesda. Natalie is the fiddler that for many people has defined the traditional music of Nova Scotia. I've loved her music for more than 10 years, and on rare occasion, I've even attempted to try to play it. When I heard that she was coming to town with her band, I immediately bought tickets to see her. I made arrangements ahead of time to meet with her to show her some of my hand made bows.
Kim and I were let in to meet with her two hours before she performed, and this meeting turned out to be the highlight of the evening for me. In the back room at the Strathmore, we got to meet Natalie, Donnell Leahy (her husband), Mary Frances (their 2-year old daughter), Nat Smith (amazing 14-year old cellist), several of the band members, and a number of her support staff. When we walked in to show her my bows, I was thinking that it would be a fairly quick visit (because she was taking the stage in less than 2 hours), but she was so generous with her time. She played three of my bows, and then handed her fiddle to her husband, Donnell, and he played through the bows. They both preferred the same bow, although for slightly different reasons.

It was very touching to see Natalie with her daughter. At one point, she picked up Mary Frances and was holding her in her lap. For Kim and I, it just made the whole experience very real to see one of my favorite players with a bit of baby spit-up on her sweater. These days, Kim and I often have a little evidence of our 6 month old on our clothes. Just before the concert started, Donnell walked through the performance hall with Mary Frances in his arms heading for a seat. At intermission, I saw him heading up the aisle with her totally asleep on his shoulder. These are things that make these performers very real to me, and I will remember them whenever I listen to Natalie's music.

I'm not sure if Natalie played my bow in the concert (our seats weren't close enough to the stage), but she played with her usual flair and gusto. Between the sets of tunes, Natalie addressed the house with commentary, jokes, and even dedicated her performance that evening of Josephene's Waltz to Kim and I.

Here is a YouTube video clip of Natalie MacMaster at a performance in Boston. Well worth the 8 minutes it takes to watch it!


Check out Natalie's website: http://www.nataliemacmaster.com/index.htm to read more about her and to purchase her CDs.