Celtic Celebration Featuring Atlantic Firth

Join us for an evening  of Celtic Music played by some of the best in the region. There will be a concert from 8pm to 10pm, with a jam to follow, so bring your instruments and get in on the fun.

Atlantic Firth

Karen Steven & Alastair MacDonald both hail from the far North of Scotland, where they grew up learning in the company of some well-known musicians such as Addie Harper (of The Wick Scottish Dance Band), Bobby Coghill and Ian Sinclair who led the folk group, Mirk.  The twinning of the Scottish Highlands with Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, in 1986, resulted in the two travelling to Cape Breton as part of a 3-week tour with high school group, The Caithness Junior Fiddlers.

 Scholarships to attend The Valley of the Moon fiddle camp in California, USA followed. It was there, KAREN was introduced to the phenomenal playing and teaching of; Alasdair Fraser, Buddy MacMaster, Martin Hayes (Ireland) and Mairead Ni Mhaonaigh (Altan).  A 1997 scholarship from The Cross Trust, enabled Karen to return to Canada to carry out the research for her degree dissertation. Other opportunities have included, playing for former president of the USA, Bill Clinton, at Carnegie’s Skibo Castle in Scotland and teaching at Norway's mid-winter dance festival, Trondheim. Teaching opportunities followed, alongside Alasdair Fraser, at Celtic Connections festival, Glasgow and Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, Isle of Skye, as well as many appearances at The NAFCo festivals over the years.

Karen has a strong, rhythmic style of fiddle playing, influenced by her highland dance training.  She enjoys writing music for and playing for many Scottish dance styles including; Scottish Country dance, highland dance, highland dance choreography, stepdance and ceilidh dancing.

 ALASTAIR played regularly for dances across Scotland and the North of England with Addie Harper’s Scottish Dance Band for many years, but more recently supporting Scottish accordion champion, Brandon McPhee – on concert tours and CD recordings.  Since 2018, Alastair has been based in the Ottawa Valley region of Ontario, where he has collaborated with local band, Traditional Fare.  The band released their debut album in 2023, featuring 13 instrumental tracks on accordion, fiddle and bagpipes.

 In addition to playing accordion, Alastair has also been known to turn his hand to keyboards and piano playing.  He has a keen interest in sound engineering and collaborated with Karen back in 2021/2022 in the making of an international recording which was a fundraiser for a children’s hospital in Glasgow.  38 musicians from 4 countries took part in the project which raised $2000 for the Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity.

 

Together, Karen and Alastair play a range of music influenced by their Scottish roots –strathspeys, reels, jigs, marches and airs – Scottish – Canadian – self composed, contemporary and traditional tunes.

 

IAN CLARK(guitar):  Originally from Scotland but living now in Ottawa, Ian has been accompanying traditional celtic music for over 25 years.  He plays concerts with folk and celtic performers and has made a number of commercial recordings with a variety of ensembles.  Since the Fall of 2022, Ian has been collaborating with Alastair & Karen, for concert sets as well as with their Scottish dance band, Atlantic Firth, for Scottish country dance events, in and around Ottawa and The Valley.

 

JOHN MITCHELL(piano): Karen & Alastair first met John, when he accompanied fiddler Anna Ludlow at a Red Bird Live show in 2022.  John is no stranger to the music performance scene and appears regularly at Ontario Fiddle & Stepdance contests, either as house pianist for competitors or competing on fiddle. John’s rhythmic approach to accompaniment suits the band’s style perfectly.  John describes his playing as one hand Cape Breton style, the other hand Ottawa Valley.

Atlantic Firth will have copies of their recently released album of Scottish country dance music available at the concert.  Don’t miss it!