oreena 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.
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
[edit] 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.
[edit] Court case
Main article: McKennitt v Ash
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.[6] The House of Lords affirmed the lower court's decisions in 2007.[7]
[edit] 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.[8]
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.[9]
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)[10], Turkey, Cyprus, Lebanon, Hungary and Italy.
[edit] 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.