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(Image Credit: Natalie MacMaster and Donnell Leahy family)
By Erika Rolling
Entertainment

Juno Award winner Natalie MacMaster and family performing in Grande Prairie

Jun 4, 2026 | 11:55 AM

Tonight (Thursday, June 4), the Douglas J. Cardinal Performing Arts Centre will be the venue for a special concert by Juno Award winner and Order of Canada member Natalie MacMaster, her husband Donnell Leahy, and their seven children.

The MacMaster and Leahy Family Concert will have all nine family members performing on stage through musical elements of the fiddle, singing, drums, and more, with Celtic influence dating back to traditional roots to modern-day trends. Tickets for the 7:30 p.m. show can be bought online by clicking here.

Natalie spoke with EverythingGP before the big night. She says this will be a night not about her, but her family.

“It’s a glimpse into our musical life and the music that we’ve taught our children, and the music that the children have chosen to dive into on their own. It’s the broadening of what they came from and the evolution, but also the traditions that are so strongly rooted in all of us.”

MacMaster and Leahy’s seven children range in age from 20 to 8 years old, all of them with their own unique musical talents.

She says it’s like herding cats to get everyone organized to rehearse together, but worth it by the time they all hit the stage.

“For me, as a mother, this is all part of the journey to that moment that people don’t realize, and I know so intimately… and as a musician it’s like wow. You can hear the broadness of the fiddle when we all play fiddle together. It’s a big sound and comes from tiny hands and veterans in the industry.”

She says performing with her children and partner was not something that was planned, but when touring with her children, they all took an interest in being on stage.

Natalie speaks about all of this and more in her new memoir called I Have a Love Story. She touches on her humble beginnings growing up on the East Coast in Cape Breton, to performing on some of the world’s most renowned stages, her partner Donnell and being a mother of seven, and balancing it all out through the challenges of life.

When we asked Natalie about the reception to her book, she said she’s a private person, but the response she has gotten has made her second-guess why she was holding back on sharing her life with the world.

“It’s so interesting to talk to people, there’s so many stories in there that people will comment on a different element of it because it resonated with their life.”

She says her main goal in writing the book was to “cause people to reflect on the meaning of love in their life and to have a desire to make that love grow.”

“It started from an experience that I had after going through a process of different thoughts, very bad ones, reflecting on the evil in the world and what would my kids live in, but I eventually came to a place where I realized all that I did have and made a discovery to think differently and that I do have my own love story.”

Natalie says she is always working on something new. She notes she and Donnell have been listening to the live recordings of the pair performing alongside a Celtic all-stars contingent back in March, which is to be put on CD in the near future.

She is also working on a symphony show to go along with her book to be performed in 2027.

by Erika Rolling