"Kendra MacGillivray, to me, was the highlight of the weekend, entertainment-wise. She was amazing, multiple standing ovations and back to our real Celtic roots, which is what the College is all about."
- Scott MacAulay, The College of Piping & Celtic Performing Arts,
Summerside, Prince Edward Island.
For over twenty years, Kendra MacGillivray has brought fiddle music to life with her incredibly energetic performances with the fiddle. As a former Highland dancer, Kendra aims to make her fiddling lively and dancable with upbeat jigs, polkas and hornpipes, beautiful swaying waltzes and slow airs or selections of rhythmic strathspeys and reels that build in speed and intensity. She’s even been known to make a few steps while fiddling at the same time in high heels!
"Her playing is strong and catching, and as the saying goes, ‘If you’re not tapping your foot to it, check your pulse.’"
- Keitha Clark, The Canadian Folk Music Bulletin
With numerous awards under her belt, including two prestigious East Coast Music Awards, including "Female Artist of the Year" and "Instrumental Artist of the Year" in 2002, Kendra travels the country, playing the traditional fiddling style from Eastern Nova Scotia. Performances have also taken her into the United States and as far away as Japan, Australia, Iceland, Europe, Barbados and of course, Scotland, where many of her favourite tunes were composed by fiddlers such as James Scott Skinner in the 1800s and 1900s.
Kendra also composes tunes to compliment her Scotch rooted music and she also loves to incorporate tunes that are written by Cape Breton and Canadian composers and ones that her grandfather, Hugh A. MacDonald made popular in the 1930s on some of the early Canadian Celtic fiddle recordings.
Hugh A. was a recipient of a Stompin’ Tom Connors Award by the ECMA in 2001 and was inducted into the Nova Scotia Country Music Hall of Fame in 2003 for his contributions to the Atlantic Canadian music scene. His recorded music was also played in the Canadian Pavilion at Expo 1967 in Montreal and at Expo 2000 in Germany, Kendra performed live in the Canadian Pavilion, thirty-three years later. To make the occassion even more momentous, she played the same tunes that her grandfather played.
She has three traditional recordings to date. MacGillivray released "Over the Waves" in 2000, "Clear the Track" in 1996 and "Antigonish’s Own" in 1990. She is currently working on new material for a CD to be released in 2006. Kendra records and performs with some of the best musicians in Atlantic Canada. Some of these musicians include Troy MacGillivray on piano, Dave MacIsaac on guitar, Greg Simm on bass and Scott Ferguson on percussion and/or drums.
MacGillivray has taken her fiddle music from the dance halls in Eastern Nova Scotia to beautiful concert stages and sold out venues around the world. She’s been invited numerous times to be a special guest of Symphony Nova Scotia, The Maritime Forces Atlantic - Stadacona Band and a feature performer in the musical, DRUM!
Her talents have enabled her to perform alongside other acclaimed fiddlers such as Alasdair Fraser, Buddy MacMaster, Natalie MacMaster, Martin Hayes, Daniel Lapp and Liz Doherty. In 2003, she was a special guest of New York composer, Philip Glass in concert at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, ON and shared the stage with Canadian artists such as Celtic singers Loreena McKennitt, Rita MacNeil and Mary Jane Lamond.
Kendra has showcased at some of the most prestigious Celtic Festivals in Canada. She has played at the Celtic Colours International Festival in Cape Breton many times and the Halifax Celtic Feis in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Other highlights include the Celtic Roots Festival in Goderich, Ontario, the Vancouver Celtic Festival and CeltFest Vancouver Island in British Columbia.
MacGillivray has headlined at Roots and Blues festivals, Folk festivals and Highland games as well. Highlights include the Salmon Arm Folk Festival, Vancouver Island Folk Festival and the Harrison Festival of the Arts, all in British Columbia, Glengarry Highland Games in Maxville, Ontario, Stan Rogers Folk Festival and Lunenburg Folk Harbour Festival in Nova Scotia, Indian River Music Festival and PEI International Shellfish Festival in Prince Edward Island, and the Dunedin Highland Games in Florida, New Bedford Folk Festival in Massachusetts and Washington DC Irish Folk Festival in Virginia.
Kendra has also been featured in Tourism Nova Scotia travel promotions, television commercials and print media since 1995. She acted and played her fiddle with her band on a CBS movie called "Heart of a Stranger" starring Jane Seymour in 2003. The opening cut from "Over the Waves" even sets the theme for CBC’s "Mainstreet" in PEI since 2001.
Since 1989, MacGillivray has also found time to pass on her Scottish traditions in fiddle, piano accompaniment, Highland and Step dance by teaching private and group lessons, workshops and master classes. She has been invited to teach at the Gaelic College of Celtic Arts & Crafts in Cape Breton, NS and in Vermont, USA, the Pacific Institute of Celtic Performing Arts on Vancouver Island in BC and at various fiddle camps such as the Emma Lake Fiddle Camp in Saskatchewan. In 2003, her efforts were rewarded with the "Educator of the Year" title by the Music Industry Association of Nova Scotia.
"This Antigonish-born troubadour has the drive, talent and passion to be the next gift to the globe." - Paul Kennedy, Country Music News
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