Fiddler Natalie MacMaster joins Grand Rapids Symphony

Fiddler Natalie MacMaster learned her craft at the feet of old-timers in living rooms and on front porches, who learned the tunes and techniques in much the same way.MacMaster and her husband, fiddler Donnell Leahy, created Leahy Music Camp to teach traditional music and much more. Some 130 kids this summer studied fiddle, guitar, accordion as well as step dancing from teachers including MacMaster and Leahy.

“They come away with some very traditional Cape Breton pieces,” said the Canadian fiddler, during a mid-day break at Leahy Music Camp, held the first week of July in Ontario.The Canadian fiddler, a native of Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, returns to West Michigan this month for the Grand Rapids Symphony's 2013 Picnic Pops Series.

In 2009, the fiddler and step dancer first appeared with the Grand Rapids Symphony for its Pops Series in DeVos Performance Hall, an experience MacMaster is looking forward to revisiting.“It's a beautiful, big, lush sound with the traditions of fiddling and the symphony world, arranged so the two worlds can come together,” she said. “It's very rhythmic and upbeat, lively and danceable.”

Traditional Celtic jigs, reels, strathspeys and waltzes accompanied by a full orchestra are part of the show at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, July 18, and Friday, July 19, 2013.Grand Rapids Symphony music director David Lockington will lead concerts for the second week of the 2013 D&W Fresh Market Picnic Pops at Cannonsburg Ski Area.

Gates open at 5:30 p.m. for picnicking, pre-concert entertainment by the Steve Talaga Trio, and children’s activities including face painting, crafts and an instrument petting zoo. Concertgoers may bring their own picnics and alcoholic beverages or purchase grilled items and soft drinks at Cannonsburg’s concession stand.

In a career spanning three decades, MacMaster, 41, has won a Canadian Juno Awards and eight Canadian Country Music Awards with 11 recordings to her credit, including her most recent album, “Cape Breton Girl,” a recording of traditional tunes.MacMaster, the niece of famed Cape Breton fiddler Buddy MacMaster, has contributed to albums by cellist Yo-Yo Ma, The Chieftains; children’s entertainer Raffi; banjo virtuoso Béla Fleck; bluegrass fiddler Alison Krauss and former Doobie Brother Michael McDonald.

MacMaster and Leahy currently are working on an album of traditional tunes for release this fall. “Mostly our own compositions and some traditional stuff as well,” she said.With empty bags in hand, hundreds of people, young and old, lined 4th and 1st streets to watch the annual Eaton Days parade pass through town.Kari Kindsfater, 5, was among the crowd seated in the sun with an empty backpack next to her. Parade-goers brought the bags — especially the children — because almost every float that passed offered something to hand out.

The theme for the parade was “Timeless Traditions,” and it included square dancers, a large tooth float, classic cars and miniature horses. The parade was part of Eaton Days, which drew more than 500 people to the town. The annual celebration offered an arts and crafts fair, a magic show and balloon artist, a barbecue, a meet the animals event, a car show, a pet contest, a family fun night and a fireworks show. The weekend-long event will conclude today.

At the parade, as items were thrown to the curb, children raced into the streets to grab as much off the ground as they could carry. There was bubble gum, lollipops, taffy, popsicles and even toothbrushes among the items thrown.Although chocolate is Kari’s favorite kind of candy, none was given out in the parade. That didn’t stop her from running back to where her dad was standing in the shade to excitedly showing him every piece of candy she picked up.Squeals of excitement came from children all over the street for more than just candy. Many were excited to see the horses passing, a man in a subway sandwich costume and cape, or even the fire trucks that went by with their sirens sounding.

The people in the parade interacted with those lining the curbs whether they knew each other or not. One man who was driving a classic car with a “just married” sticker on the side and cans attached behind it, was asking everyone on the street if they had seen his bride.As the parade wrapped up, Kari’s dad, Craig Kindsfater, picked up his son Jay. It was Jay’s first time at the parade, and he was more interested in going to the park than any of the candy that other children gathered for him.

Irrespective of the BJP's defence, Narendra Modi should certainly have chosen his words better in describing the 2002 Gujarat riots in an interview to a foreign news agency. Comparing the riots to the inadvertent running over of a puppy by a car is an atrocious metaphor bound to raise hackles among the Gujarat chief minister's critics. Modi should know that using such insensitive language would be perceived as trivialising the suffering of the victims of the riots and play into the hands of the Congress, which plans to consistently attack his secular credentials. Modi's comments grate further in light of the fact that neither has he apologised for the riots nor owned up to the failure of his state machinery that led to the 2002 carnage.

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