Loreena McKennitt | Artist

Loreena McKennitt CM OM CD is a Canadian singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and composer born 1957 in Mordern, Canada. McKennitt, who writes, records, and performs world music with Celtic and Middle Eastern influences is known for her refined and clear soprano vocals, and has sold more than 14 million records worldwide. Born to parents of Irish and Scottish descent, McKennitt developed her love for music, influenced in part by the musical traditions of the local Mennonite community. Whilst studying at the University of Manitoba to become a veterinarian she discovered the folk music of fellow Canadians Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and Gordon Lightfoot. After performing at the inaugural Winnipeg Folk Festival in 1974, McKennitt developed an interest in Celtic music and visited Ireland to hear it for herself and began to learn the Celtic harp. Back in Canada she began busking at various places, including St. Lawrence Market in Toronto to earn money to record her first album. In 1981, she moved to Stratford, Ontario to join the Stratford Festival acting company, and still resides there. As a recording artist McKennitt has released 10 studio albums to-date, highlighted by a run of four superb albums; The Visit (1991), The Mask and Mirror (1994), The Book of Secrets (1997) and An Ancient Muse (2006). Her characteristically ethereal falsetto voice is accompanied by fiddle, Irish harp, balalaika, sitar, tin whistle, Uilleann pipes and bodhrán; but also synth pads. The depth to her material and the polished instrumentation raises her music above being some kind of wishy-washy new age elevator folk. McKennitt's music is grounded in traditional and classical invocations, using literary works as sources of lyrics and springboards for the interpretation of works by authors such as Shakespeare, Tennyson, William Blake and William Yeats.

Artist Website: loreenamckennitt.com

Featured Albums: Loreena McKennitt

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