'Tis the Season For Giving

As it is the season for giving, Catamount Arts and Kingdom County Productions will be giving away two tickets to see Natalie MacMaster live in concert on Monday, December 19th at 7:00pm at St. Johnsbury Academy's Fuller Hall.

Entering the contest is easy.  Just follow the three steps below:

1. "Like" our page on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Catamount-Film-and-Arts/118348528367)
2. Follow us on Twitter (https://twitter.com/#!/CatamountArts)
3. Post a comment below to let us know you have done the first two.  If you already have done the first two, just post to let us know you want to be part of the contest.

All entries must be received by noon on Friday, December 16th and the winner will be selected randomly from the entries that meet all the criteria listed above.  We will post the winner's name here as well as on Facebook and Twitter.

Good Luck!

A little about Natalie MacMaster:

Equally at home on the concert stage or at a folk festival, Grammy-nominated Cape Breton fiddler Natalie MacMaster is one of the most versatile and exciting young musicians on both the Folk music and Celtic music scenes. MacMaster's many projects have seen her collaborate and perform with Alison Krauss, Carlos Santana, the Chieftains, Paul Simon, Pavarotti, and Yo-Yo Ma.

Natalie's live performances are a testament to her incandescent musicianship and boundless energy, featuring foot-tapping rave-ups, heart-rending ballads, and world-class step dancing. MacMaster is equally adept at hypnotizing a crowd while alone in the footlights. Natalie's fiddling fireworks on traditional and contemporary Celtic melodies generate a kind of "Traditional Fusion" delivered with uplifting energy felt by the musicians and audiences of all ages.

From KRISTIN NORD, Halifax Chronicle Herald:

Children from these Cape Breton parishes often perform at church festivals when they are very young. For Natalie MacMaster, her debut came at Glendale less than a year after she’d begun playing her first ¾-size fiddle.

"By the time I picked up the fiddle, I felt as if I had nine years of experience already," she recalls. "I had so many melodies in my head; I could hum a lot of tunes."

Her parents encouraged her playing from the very start, transporting her to the halls and packing a blanket and a pillow in the backseat on the nights when they knew she’d be up late playing for a dance.  Natalie "was like a sponge, absorbing and responding to everything," said her early champion, musician Mike Denney, “but she was also exceedingly shy. While the MacMasters in private are dry-witted and hilarious, it was a leap for Natalie to see that she could show that side of herself on stage.”

After 11 recordings, two DVDs, many East Coast and Juno awards and a Grammy-nomination later, Natalie remains the person she has always been.  She will continue to draw upon her life and memories, and will keep the lessons of her upbringing close to her heart. As she conjures this scene, from a rich repository of many musical evenings, we once again return to her message, and to the source of her art.

"The music is like the people and the land,” she says. “Strong, powerful, and rugged. It all blends. It all matches."

It was a summer’s night a few years ago when Natalie and (her renowned fiddler uncle) Buddy MacMaster were setting up for a joint release party. What had begun as a family project to record jointly a selection of tunes Buddy was known for had turned out so well that they’d decided to mass produce it.

"The hall in Judique was packed so tight that night with relatives that it could have been a family reunion," says Natalie. There in the spotlight Buddy was opening his fiddle case and taking a seat beside Natalie on the narrow stage.

Betty Lou Beaton, Natalie’s aunt, one of a succession of sisters and a daughter who have accompanied him so ably throughout the years, "slid behind the piano." Meanwhile, her cousin, Andrea, was tuning up for the dance that was to follow. 

"My sister-in-law collected tickets at the front door and then served tea and Mom’s banana bread from the communal kitchen." With the music underway, Natalie’s mom, Minnie, one of the island’s celebrated step dancers, joined them onstage for a joyful display of footwork.

"That night represented what I love most about Cape Breton,” she said. “There is no division among our lives, our families and friends, and our music," she says.  And therein is essence of what she cherishes. It is all so wonderfully interwoven.