Natalie MacMaster

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When you think of Natalie MacMaster you can't help also thinking of family and dynasty. She is the niece of famed Cape Breton fiddler Buddy MacMaster, who started her on the fiddle when she was nine years old, and when she returns to the Ann Arbor Summer Festival at the Power Center on Thursday, July 3, she will be accompanied by her husband, Donnell Leahy, a brilliant fiddler in his own right and frontman for the highly popular Canadian family band Leahy. Quite likely, Natalie's mother will also be along, as she often is on her tours, helping to care for Natalie and Donnell's two young children while the couple are onstage.

If it's not too much past their bedtime, the kids may be staying up with the rest of us, thrilling to the music of their parents — music with ancient roots, blooming in the present and branching out into the future. And someday they may be passing along to their children the rich heritage they are inheriting from their parents.

[Review published July 2008]