Masters of the Fiddle perform as part of Center Stage

Center Stage presented husband and wife fiddlers, Natalie MacMaster and Donnell Leahy, in Masters of the Fiddle. MacMaster and Leahy were joined by pianists Mac Morin, and Erin Leahy, Donnell’s sister.

MacMaster and Leahy are currently on a tour called Two Fiddles, Two Pianos.  For this concert, both MacMaster and Leahy have left behind their usual bands and are playing together with two pianists
accompanying them.
“I really love being Canadian when I watch Natalie MacMaster. She represents her country really well. Not a lot of people know how much family means to her,” said Mandy Atwood, a senior studying art.

A special treat in the performance was when their three-year-old son, Michael, joined them onstage and danced while Leahy played the fiddle. Michael walked onto stage with his mother and Leahy introduced him as their son, and explained that they didn’t know that Michael was going to be joining them.

“We travel a lot with little ones, and they try to be like mom and dad. Tonight Michael said, ‘I want to dance I want to dance’,” Leahy said.

MacMaster and Leahy played a variety of tunes, including a song entitled “Madness Medley”. In “Madness Medley” each musician (including the pianists) took a time to play a solo, of whatever they wanted. They would begin and end with the same notes and meld the songs together to create their own song.

“My favorite part has been when they started doing the impromptu music. I like how they break out and can start out in the beginning and end at the end of the song together,” said Lilly Russell, a freshman studying elementary education. 

Masters of the Fiddle featured dancing as well as the fiddle. Each of the four musicians took their chance to show off their dance skills. According to nataliemacmaster.com, MacMaster started incorporating step dancing into her performances when she was 16, and continues to do it while she is pregnant to help get the crowd excited.

MacMaster and Leahy have different cultural backgrounds. Both are from Canada, but grew up with difference influences. MacMaster is a virtuoso Cape Breton fiddler according to her website nataliemacmaster.com. She plays “traditional Canadian sound for contemporary times” according to the Center Stage program description.

“Her [Natalie MacMaster’s] music is very much, culturally rich. If you want to know what the culture is like in eastern Canada, especially in Cape Breton this is it,” Atwood said.
Leahy grew up with parents who played the fiddle. He described how his family played together and learned to play by ear. They also picked up on influences from whatever they heard on the radio.

“In our case we didn’t have a lot of music around us…so, we don’t sound like a distinct culture or style. When I met certain people or listened to certain types of music it influenced me,” Leahy said.

MacMaster has been to BYU-Idaho previously, and she said that she enjoys performing here. She played here right after her first child was born. 

When asked what she likes about playing at BYU-Idaho MacMaster said, “The crowd, the crowd, the crowd, [it’s] unbelievable. I remember the crowd because they aren’t shy. They’ll holler out.  It’s so good when you’re on stage playing and people don’t wait until the very end to do anything. As you’re going along, you change progression of tunes and tempos and things and they holler stuff out and they’re alive and they’re young, It’s great.”