Loreena Isabel Irene McKennitt, CM, OM, (born February 17, 1957) is a Canadian singer, composer, harpist and pianist most famous for writing, recording and performing world music with Celtic and Middle Eastern themes. McKennitt is known for her refined, warbling soprano vocals. [1]
Early life
McKennitt was born in Morden, Manitoba of Irish and Scottish descent to parents Jack and Irene McKennitt (a livestock dealer and a nurse). She moved to Stratford, Ontario in 1981, where she lives.
When Loreena was young she wanted to become a veterinarian but she found that music chose her rather than she it.[2] Developing a passion for Celtic music, she learned to play the Celtic harp and began busking at various places, one well known place being St. Lawrence Market in Toronto in order to earn money needed for publishing her first album.[3]
Career
Her first album, Elemental, was released in 1985, followed by To Drive the Cold Winter Away (1987), Parallel Dreams (1989), The Visit (1991), The Mask and Mirror (1994), A Winter Garden (1995), The Book of Secrets (1997), An Ancient Muse (2006) and A Midwinter Night’s Dream (2008). All of her work is released under her own label, Quinlan Road.
In 1993, her music became known to a wider audience when she toured Europe supporting Mike Oldfield. In 1995, her version of the traditional Irish song "Bonny Portmore" was prominently featured in the film Highlander 3, causing a large increase of album sales among fans of the films. McKennitt's single "The Mummers' Dance" was a widespread success, receiving considerable airplay in North American markets during the spring of 1997, and was used as the theme song for the short-lived TV series, Legacy.
Her music appeared in the movies The Santa Clause, Soldier, Jade, Holy Man, The Mists of Avalon, Tinkerbell, and in the television series Roar and Due South.
Personal life
In 1998, McKennitt's fiancé, Ronald Rees; his brother Richard; and their close friend Gregory Cook, drowned during a boating incident on Georgian Bay. She was deeply affected by the event and subsequently founded the Cook-Rees Memorial Fund for Water Search and Safety in the same year.
At the time of the incident, she was working on an album of two live performances called Live in Paris and Toronto. The proceeds from the sales of that album were donated to the newly created fund, totaling some three million dollars. [4] After the release of the live album, McKennitt decided to substantially reduce the number of public performances and did not release any new recordings until the studio album An Ancient Muse in 2006.
Honors
- Juno Award, Best Roots/Traditional Album 1992, for The Visit.
- Juno Award, Best Roots/Traditional Album 1994, for The Mask and Mirror.
- Billboard International Achievement Award, 1997.
- Headline performer for HRH Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip at The Golden Jubilee Celebrations, Province of Manitoba, 2002.
- Honorary Doctor of Letters, Wilfrid Laurier University, 2002.
- Member of the Order of Manitoba, July 2003.
- Member of the Order of Canada, July 2004.
- Honorary Doctor of Laws, University of Manitoba, June 2005
- Canadian Ambassador, Hans Christian Andersen Bicentennary, June 2005
- Honorary Doctor of Laws, Queen's University, October 2005
- Investiture as Honorary Colonel, 435 Squadron, Canadian Air Force, December 2006
- Nominated for a Grammy award, Best Contemporary World Music Album, in 2007
- Western Canadian Music Awards Lifetime Achievement Award, September 2009
Genre and work
McKennitt's music has generally been classified as World / Celtic music even though it contains aspects and characteristics of music from around the globe and is sometimes classified as Folk music in record stores.
Before McKennitt composes any music, she engages in considerable research on a specific subject which then forms the general concept of the album. Before creating Elemental and Parallel Dreams, she traveled to Ireland for inspiration from the country's history, folklore, geography and culture. The album The Mask and Mirror was preceded by research in Spain where she engaged in studying Galicia, a Celtic section of Spain, along with its abundant Arabic roots. The result was an album including elements of Celtic and Arabic music. According to the notes of her latest album, An Ancient Muse was inspired primarily by travels among and reading about the various cultures along the Silk Road.
McKennitt is compared to Enya, but McKennitt's music is more grounded in traditional and classical invocations, using literary works as sources of lyrics and springboards for interpretation such as "The Lady of Shalott" by Lord Tennyson, "Prospero's Speech" (the final soliloquy in William Shakespeare's The Tempest), "Snow" by Archibald Lampman, "Dark Night of the Soul" by St. John of the Cross, William Blake's "Lullaby", Yeats' "The Stolen Child", and "The Highwayman" by Alfred Noyes.
Court case
In 2005, McKennitt was involved in an acrimonious court case in England when her former friend and employee, Niema Ash, published a book which contained intimate details of their friendship. McKennitt argued that much of the book contained confidential personal information, which Ash had no right to publish. The English courts found that there had indeed been a breach of confidence and a misuse of McKennitt's private information, and the case is likely to set important precedents in English law on the privacy of celebrities.[5] The House of Lords affirmed the lower court's decisions in 2007.
2006 and since
In September 2006, McKennitt performed live at the Alhambra. The performance premiered on PBS and in August 2007 was released on a three-disc DVD/CD set entitled Nights from the Alhambra.
In 2008, McKennitt composed the song entitled To The Fairies They Draw Near as the theme song for Disney's direct to video animated film Tinker Bell. The film makers were so impressed with her, that they asked her to do the narration for the film.[6]
In the Spring of that same year, she returned to Peter Gabriel's Real World Studios to record A Midwinter Night’s Dream, an extended version of A Winter Garden (1995). The album was released on October 28.[7]
Since the release of An Ancient Muse Loreena has toured consistently, with a European and North American tour in the Spring of 2007, an extensive cross Canada and United States tour in the fall of 2007, a summer tour of Europe in 2008 and a Mediterranean tour in the summer of 2009, with stops in Greece (concerts were postponed, but finally held in late June)[8], Turkey, Cyprus, Lebanon, Hungary and Italy.
On September 17th 2009, through her facebook and website, Loreena announced that in the fall of 2009, she will be releasing a Two Disc set entitled "A Mediterranean Odyssey"
The first CD, From Istanbul to Athens, consists of ten new live recordings made during Loreena’s 2009 Mediterranean Tour, including songs that have never before been recorded in concert. It will also include a twenty-four-page, lavishly illustrated booklet featuring on-location photographs captured during the 2009 Tour.
The second CD, The Olive and the Cedar, has a Mediterranean theme curated by Loreena herself. It contains previously released studio recordings created between the years of 1994 and 2006.
Documentaries
McKennitt created No Journey's End, a half-hour documentary, for American television. In it, she discusses the influences behind her music. No Journey's End contains excerpts from several songs from the albums Parallel Dreams, The Visit, and The Mask and Mirror. It also shows live performances of the songs "The Lady of Shalott", "Santiago", and "The Dark Night of the Soul". It was later released as both a DVD and VHS, the former also containing music videos for "The Mummers' Dance" and "The Bonny Swans". A bonus copy of the DVD was included with the 2004 remastered versions of McKennitt's CDs.
In 2008, Loreena released A Moveable Musical Feast, a unique souvenir of Loreena McKennitt’s 2007 An Ancient Muse tour with a rare backstage look. The DVD includes interviews with Loreena, her band, crew, fans and professional colleagues from the Canadian music industry. Loreena and her fellow travellers describe their stories of how her show ‘goes up’, discuss the joys and challenges of their nomadic life when ‘on the road’ and share their thoughts on the creative relationships they have with each other, the music and the audience.
Discography
Albums
Live Albums
Compilations
- The Best of Loreena McKennitt (1997)
- A Mummers' Dance Through Ireland (2009)
- A Mediterranean Odyssey (2009)
EPs
Singles
Videos
- The Mummers' Dance (1997)
- The Bonny Swans
- Loreena McKennitt: Nights from the Alhambra (2007, Live concert in Spain premiered on PBS)[10]
- A Moveable Musical Feast (2008, A tour documentary from Loreena's 2007 North American Tour)[11]
Other
References
External links
