Fiddle
“THE NEW FACE OF SCOTTISH FIDDLING IN THE USA” (The Living Tradition), Katie McNally has made waves in both the American folk music scene and abroad since the release of her debut album, Flourish, in 2013. Her latest project synthesizes her elegant and powerful fiddle playing with the talents of genre-crossing pianist Neil Pearlman and bluegrass phenom Shauncey Ali on viola.
The trio recently travelled to Cape Breton to record a brand-new album released in Fall 2016. Under the guidance of producer Wendy MacIsaac (Beolach, Mary Jane Lamond), McNally has curated a collection of tunes that will draw inspiration from raw, mid-century recordings of Cape Breton fiddlers both in Nova Scotia and Massachusetts and be sculpted by the creative energy of the Boston acoustic music scene.
Recent covergirl for Fiddler Magazine, Katie has performed and taught fiddle courses in the U.S., Canada, Spain, Scotland, England, and France. A member of the cross genre fiddle super-group Childsplay since 2009, she appears on their CD and concert video release, “As the Crow Flies,” produced by legendary Irish fiddler, Liz Carroll. McNally performs regularly as a soloist and has collaborated in the past with guitarist Eric McDonald and all-woman trad group, Long Time Courting. In the fall of 2012, she accompanied famed Galician bagpiper Carlos Núñez on his first North American tour to promote the release of his Sony Masterworks double album, “Discover.”
A student of acclaimed fiddler Hanneke Cassel, Katie has played at the Newport Folk Festival, the Barns at Wolf Trap, The Freight and Salvage, The Festival of American Fiddle Tunes, Benaroya Hall, as well as various folk venues throughout North America. In addition to her busy touring schedule, she is a devoted educator whose teaching style was molded by years of attendance at fiddle camps where learning music is about joy and community and fun! This is her approach whether working with her private students, in workshops, at fiddle camps, in musical outreach programs or at Boston’s Symphony Hall.
Katie attended both The University of Glasgow and The National Piping Centre in Glasgow Scotland where she studied ancient and modern Scottish Literature and Scottish traditional music. Katie graduated Magna Cum Laude from Tufts University in 2012 with concentrations in Music, English and Child Development where she earned The Etta and Harry Winokur Award for Outstanding Contribution to Performance.
Katie’s website: www.katiemcnally.com