Popular Celtic Fiddler Natalie MacMaster to Perform at UB on April 27

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The Center for the Arts at the University at Buffalo will present Natalie MacMaster at 8 p.m. on April 27, 2005 in the Mainstage theater located in the Center for the Arts on the UB North (Amherst) Campus. Tickets for the performance will go on sale at 10 a.m. on Dec. 3.

What music means to Natalie MacMaster is evident on the faces in the crowd at any of her concerts -- the sheer joy of performance, the absolute love of the music, the unspoken knowledge that something special is being shared.

"MacMaster's a ball of fire, performing jigs and reels with unstoppable foot-tapping energy and ballads with irresistible, keening passion," says the Los Angeles Times.

"MacMaster dances as exuberantly as she plays. A combustible virtuoso," says The Washington Post.

While still fairly new to songwriting, the 30-year-old MacMaster is already a veteran of her instrument. She first picked up a fiddle at the age of nine and hasn't looked back. The niece of famed Cape Breton fiddler Buddy MacMaster, Natalie quickly became a major talent in her own right. After winning numerous East Coast Music Awards for her early traditional Cape Breton recordings, she began taking Celtic music to new heights with albums like "In My Hands," which featured elements of jazz, Latin music and guest vocals by Alison Krauss.

In addition to her 2000 Grammy-nomination for "Best Traditional Folk Album" for "My Roots Are Showing," MacMaster has been named Fiddle Player of the Year for the past five years by the Canadian Country Music Association, has won two Juno awards (Canada's equivalent to a Grammy) and won 11 East Coast Music Award, including 2002 Entertainer of the Year. She and her enthralling band have toured around the world, sharing the stage with an astonishingly diverse range of acts including Carlos Santana, the Chieftains, Paul Simon, Luciano Pavarotti, Alison Krauss, Mark O'Connor and dozens of world-class symphony orchestras.

With her latest release, "Blueprint," MacMaster is once again pushing the boundaries for traditional music, fusing her brilliant Cape Breton fiddling with the sounds of banjo, Dobro and mandolin, as played by the cream of America's bluegrass community. Bluegrass and Celtic music are close cousins, with shared roots dating back several hundred years, and MacMaster has enlisted some of the world's top bluegrass pickers, including Bela Fleck, Jerry Douglas, Sam Bush and Edgar Meyer.

Tickets are $27. Tickets are available from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday in the Center for the Art Box Office and all Ticketmaster locations, including Kaufmann's. To charge tickets, call 852-5000; in Canada 1-416-870-8000. For group sales, call 645-6771. For more information call 645-ARTS. The Center for the Arts is a Ticketfast location.