Music of Cape Breton Island for fiddle, pipes and piano
The exuberant Celtic music of Nova Scotia?s Cape Breton Island reflects the dance-driven rhythms of ancient strathspeys, reels and jigs, played with joy and drive on the fiddle and pipes, and underpinned by the powerful and syncopated locomotion of the traditional Cape Breton piano. The high-energy instrumental music is varied with songs sung in English and Gaelic by Andrea and Dick.
Andrea Beaton, ?a powerful Cape Breton fiddler, composer and stepdancer,? is one of the most accomplished and well-known fiddlers from the newest crop of Cape Breton musicians. Andrea's lively music is characterized by her powerful bow, the drive and swing of her timing and the crispness of her attack. She learned her tradition from her family. Her father, Kinnon, is one of today's most influential Cape Breton fiddlers; her mother, Betty Beaton, is one of the great piano accompanists of her generation. Her late uncle, Buddy MacMaster, was the most revered fiddler on Cape Breton Island, and her cousin, Natalie MacMaster, is an enormously popular entertainer on the fiddle. Her music is at once her own and deeply rooted in the tradition associated with the Mabou Coal Mines in Cape Breton. She has released 5 solo CDs, one of which won the 2010 East Coast Music Association ?instrumental recording of the year? award. andreabeaton.com
??Beaton is a force to be reckoned with, a powerful player with great technique and tremendous passion. She's also a player capable of finding the subtle nuances in every little note and bringing them out.? -The Guardian, Charlottetown
Appearing with Andrea will be Dick Hensold, playing various bagpipes and whistles. He is the leading Northumbrian smallpiper in North America, and for the past 20 years has performed and taught in England, Scotland, Japan, Canada, and across the United States. His solo CD Big Music for Northumbrian Smallpipes was released in 2007. He is also known for performance of early music, several European pipe traditions, and Cambodian reeds. dickhensold.com
?Dick Hensold is a master piper with an exquisite touch.? ?City Pages, Minneapolis
Joining Andrea and Dick will be pianist and multi-instrumentalist Troy MacGillivray. From Lanark, Nova Scotia, Troy has been playing music and step dancing since he was a young child, and was teaching at Cape Breton?s Gaelic College in St. Ann by the time he was 13. A winner of numerous music awards, he is the recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for outstanding contributions to culture in Canada. Troy's playing is featured on both Dick Hensold's solo recording and Andrea Beaton's CD, The Tap Sessions. Also, see troymacgillivray.com
Don?t expect to sit still when you join us for our April program, on Saturday, April 18, at 8pm in the Washington Ethical Society Auditorium, 7750 16th St., NW, Washington, DC 20012. General admission, $15; free to members.
Please park on 16th Street, not on Kalmia.
