A Cape Breton Kitchen Party

REGION -- New England Celtic Arts will present Cape Breton performers Wendy Mac Isaac and Andrea Beaton at Skye Theatre Performing Arts Center in South Carthage on Wednesday March 2 and at Unity College Center for the Performing Arts on Thursday, March 3. Curtain is at 7 p.m. at Skye and 7:30 p.m. in Unity.

There is a pre-show jam session 45 minutes prior to curtain at all both venues. Audience members are encouraged to bring their instruments and jam with the artists for a few minutes.

Wendy Mac Isaac is a fiddler, piano player, and stepdancer from Creignish, Inverness County, who began her career at age four as a stepdancer, and went on to take fiddle lessons from Stan Chapman at age 12. By 1990, she was well established as one of the top new young fiddler/pianists in Cape Breton and was in great demand for dances and festivals. Wendy has since entertained audiences across Canada, the United States, the UK, Europe and Brazil.

She is a founding member of Beolach, and has also performed with The Cape Breton Summertime Revue, Capercaillie, The Chieftains, Ashley MacIsaac, toured with The Rankin Sisters and toured and recorded with Mary Jane Lamond for fourteen years. Wendy has released three albums-The Reel Thing, That's What You Get, and Timeline and has taught step-dancing at festivals and workshops around the world.

Andrea Beaton is one of Cape Breton's most promising young fiddlers and comes by her music honestly. Listen to her play, the power of her bow, the drive and swing of her timing, the crispness of her attack. She's making a name for herself in dance halls, concerts, ceilidhs, and festivals. Like the compelling tradition she represents, her reputation is growing, spreading beyond the island. Andrea Beaton seems destined for great things.

She's the youngest of generations of Beaton musicians. Her father, Kinnon, is one of today's most influential Cape Breton fiddlers, and you can hear some of his timing in Andrea's playing. Her mother, Betty Beaton, is one of the great piano accompanists of her generation, contributing to that remarkable Beaton timing.

Her paternal grandfather, Donald Angus Beaton, was one of the strongest and most popular players of his generation, and you can hear some of his power in her playing. Her paternal grandmother, Elizabeth Beaton, is a strongly rhythmic piano player, with a great love of the music.

Skye Theater is located three miles west of East Dixfield village at 2 Highland Dr. off Winter Hill Road and Rt. 2 in South Carthage. UCCPA is at 42 Depot St. in Unity. For reservations at the theater you wish to attend call Skye Theatre at 562-4445, or UCCPA at 948-7469. Tickets are $15 at Skye and Unity.