Pic: Knockgrafton Facebook

For those who may not have gotten enough Celtic music during the fourth Maynooth Celtic Festival last week, you were in for a treat, with the final offering this season from Performing Arts Bancroft, Ottawa, reports the Bancroft This Week website. Jennifer White, a Celtic harpist and storyteller, hit the boards at the Village Playhouse on May 9. White discovered the Celtic harp at the University of Western Ontario, where she was studying literature, says her website.

“Her early musical influences have given her a background unique to the folk harp community. Surrounded as a youngster by both down east folk and traditional dixieland jazz, she is comfortable improvising on traditional tunes or originating her own material. Her early foray into classical piano and formal theory have also given her the tools to approach her craft with technical prowess and scholarship. More than anything else, however, her music comes from the heart, and it is the emotional power of her performances that draws enthusiastic audience response.”

Pic: Knockgrafton Facebook

White’s discography includes Clarsach, a 12-track celebration of the harp, released in 1998, and The Silver Branch, released in 2006. In addition, she has included selections for Celtic Mystique: Women in Song, Celtic Mystique: Women of Song, and Barrachash: Celtic Jewels. Joining her on her north of Highway 7 trek will be musical partner, Robert McMaster, a self-proclaimed eclectic percussionist. “That means that I will hit anything that does not hit back,” he says.

His background in music goes back along a wide and varied path, to a time when he received his first snare drum at seven years old. From then on, he was hooked on rhythm. Through his teens and early twenties, Robert learned the rudiments, so to speak, of his trade, playing both drums and trumpet in a Canadian Championship Drum Corps. His teen years also found him behind a full drum kit, which took him into many styles of music, from country and rock, to polka, big band and jazz. Finally, Robert’s path took him back to his roots as a Scots/Irish/Canadian bodhran player.

On bodhran, McMaster has had the privilege to sit in, either on stage or in traditional sessions, with such groups as Vancouver’s Paper Boys, with Cape Breton’s “first lady of the Celtic Fiddle” Winnie Chafe and her band, Legacy, with Montreal’s Orealis and Ireland’s Nomos. Robert has also given many workshops on playing the Irish bodhran and other rhythm instruments.

See the original article on the Bancroft This Week website

Visit the Jennifer White, Celtic Harp website

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