International fiddling sensation Natalie MacMaster invokes the holiday traditions of her native Cape Breton with foot-tapping rave-ups, heart-wrenching ballads, world-class step dancing, Celtic melodies and Christmas carols.

Background:
After winning numerous East Coast Music Awards for her early traditional Cape Breton recordings, Natalie MacMaster 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. To her accomplishments, she's added two Juno Awards (the Canadian equivalent of the Grammy) for Best Instrumental Album and several Canadian Country Music Awards for Fiddler of the Year. She has shared the live performance stage with acts ranging from Carlos Santana to the Chieftains, Paul Simon to Luciano Pavarotti, Alison Krauss to Mark O'Connor and dozens of world-class symphony orchestras. She's performed on ABC Television's New Year's Eve broadcast at the special request of one of her greatest fans, host, Peter Jennings. She's created, financed and produced her very own nationally broadcast network TV special. Two of her CD's have charted on Billboard's Top 20 Selling World Music charts. Four of her previous five CD releases have been certified "gold" (50,000 +) in Canada.

Bluegrass and Celtic music are close cousins, with shared roots dating back several hundred years. "Irish music affects me the same way as Cape Breton music because those are the sounds and instruments that I've heard since I was a child. It's the same thing with bluegrass music, which has many of the same sounds and instruments. And, in a way, bluegrass musicians play reels, breakdowns and jigs too, so it's all very similar."