Loreena McKennitt | |
|---|---|
 McKennitt performing in 2012 | |
| Background information | |
| Born | Loreena McKennitt (1957-02-17)February 17, 1957 (age 68) Morden, Manitoba, Canada |
| Origin | Stratford, Ontario, Canada |
| Genres | |
| Occupations |
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| Instruments | |
| Years active | 1985–1998, 2006–present |
| Labels | |
| Website | loreenamckennitt |
Loreena McKennittCM OM CD (born February 17, 1957) is a Canadian singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and composer who writes, records, and performsworld music withCeltic andMiddle Eastern influences. McKennitt is known for her refined and clear soprano vocals.[1] She has sold more than 16 million records worldwide.[2]
McKennitt was born inMorden, Manitoba, of Irish and Scottish descent to parents Jack McKennitt (died 1992) and Irene née Dickey (1931–2011). In Morden, she developed her love for music, influenced, in part, by the musical traditions of the localMennonite community.[3]
McKennitt enrolled at theUniversity of Manitoba in Winnipeg to become a veterinarian. While in Winnipeg she discovered folk music, including fellow CanadiansNeil Young,Joni Mitchell, andGordon Lightfoot. After performing at the inauguralWinnipeg Folk Festival in 1974,[4] McKennitt developed an interest in Celtic music and visited Ireland to hear it for herself.[5] Developing a passion for Celtic music, she learned to play theCeltic harp and beganbusking at various places, includingSt. Lawrence Market in Toronto to earn money to record her first album.[6]
In 1981, she moved toStratford, Ontario to join theStratford Festival acting company; she still resides there.[7]
McKennitt's first album,Elemental, was released in 1985, followed byTo Drive the Cold Winter Away (1987),Parallel Dreams (1989),The Visit (1991),The Mask and Mirror (1994),[8]A Winter Garden (1995), andThe Book of Secrets (1997). All of her work is released under her own label,Quinlan Road.
In 1990, McKennitt provided the music for theNational Film Board of Canada documentaryThe Burning Times, a feminist revisionist account of the Early Modern Europeanwitchcraft trials. She and the musical team she headed would later re-record the documentary's main theme on her albumThe Visit under the title "Tango to Evora".
In 1993, she toured Europe supportingMike Oldfield. In 1995, her version of the traditional Irish song "Bonny Portmore" was featured in theHighlander series, followed by the 1994 filmHighlander 3: The Sorcerer. McKennitt's single "The Mummers' Dance" received airplay in North American markets during the spring of 1997, and was used as the theme song for the short-lived TV seriesLegacy. It also saw use in the trailer for a wide-release 1998Drew Barrymore filmEver After.
Her music appeared in the moviesThe Santa Clause,Soldier,Jade,Holy Man,The Mists of Avalon, andTinker Bell. It was also featured in the television seriesRoar,Due South, andFull Circle (Women and Spirituality).
In July 1998, McKennitt's fiancé Ronald Rees, his brother Richard, and their close friend Gregory Cook drowned in a boating accident onGeorgian Bay. She was deeply affected by the event, and she founded the Cook-Rees Memorial Fund for Water Search and Safety in the same year. At the time of the incident, she was working on a live album of two performances calledLive in Paris and Toronto. The proceeds from this album were donated to the newly created memorial fund, totalling some three million dollars.[9]
After the release of the live album, McKennitt decided that she would substantially reduce the number of her public performances, and she did not release any new recordings.
During 2005, McKennitt began working on the albumAn Ancient Muse, her seventh full-length studio album, released in November 2006. In September 2006, she performed live at theAlhambra in Spain. The performance premiered onPBS and in August 2007 was released on a three-disc DVD/CD set titledNights from the Alhambra.
In 2008, McKennitt wrote and composed "To the Fairies They Draw Near" for the theme song for Disney's direct-to-video animated filmTinker Bell. She also provided the narration for the film.[10]
In early 2008, she returned toPeter Gabriel'sReal World Studios to recordA Midwinter Night's Dream, an extended version of her 1995 mini-albumA Winter Garden: Five Songs for the Season. The album was released on October 28, 2008.[11]
Since the release ofAn Ancient Muse, McKennitt has toured consistently, in Europe and North American, including theAn Ancient Muse tour in 2007, another extensive tour across Canada and United States later in 2007, a tour of Europe in 2008 and a Mediterranean tour in 2009 with stops in Greece,[12] Turkey, Cyprus, Lebanon, Hungary and Italy.
On September 17, 2009, McKennitt announced the release of a two-disc album,A Mediterranean Odyssey. The first CD, "From Istanbul to Athens", consisted of 10 new live recordings from her 2009 Mediterranean tour, including songs she had never before recorded in concert. The second CD, "The Olive and the Cedar", had a Mediterranean theme which McKennitt herself curated. It contained previously released studio recordings created between 1994 and 2006.
November 16, 2010, saw the US release (November 12 for Europe) of McKennitt's studio album,The Wind That Shakes the Barley. Recorded at theSharon Temple in Ontario, the album comprises nine traditional Celtic songs.[13]
When McKennitt releasedThe Wind that Shakes the Barley she visited several countries to help promote the album. During the promotional tour she performed an hour-long concert in the studios of German radio station SWR1, accompanied only byBrian Hughes (guitars) andCaroline Lavelle (cello) who have long been part of her tours and recordings. This live concert was released on CD in 2011. CalledTroubadours on the Rhine, the album was nominated for a 2012 Grammy for Best New Age Album.
On November 30, 2012, McKennitt lent her support toKate Winslet'sGolden Hat Foundation together withTim Janis,Sarah McLachlan,Andrea Corr,Hayley Westenra, theSleepy Man Banjo Boys, Dawn Kenney,Jana Mashonee, Amy Petty, and a choir, along with others, performing on "The American Christmas Carol" concert atCarnegie Hall.[14][15]
McKennitt's 10th studio album,Lost Souls, was released on May 11, 2018. She planned a tour to support the album's release in 2018 and 2019.[16]
She had a small acting role in the 2018 filmRoad to the Lemon Grove, as the voice of God.[17]
In 2019, McKennitt released the live albumLive at the Royal Albert Hall, recorded earlier that year in London.
McKennitt's music has generally been classified asWorld orCeltic music even though it contains aspects and characteristics of music from around the globe and is sometimes classified asfolk music in record stores.
McKennitt is occasionally compared toEnya,[18] 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" byLord Tennyson, "Prospero's Speech" (the finalsoliloquy inWilliam Shakespeare'sThe Tempest), the Northumbrianmurder ballad "The Twa Sisters" (which inspired "The Bonny Swans" onThe Mask and Mirror), "Snow" byArchibald Lampman, "Dark Night of the Soul" bySt. John of the Cross,Dante'sInferno,William Blake's "Lullaby",Yeats' "The Stolen Child," "The English Ladye and the Knight" bySir Walter Scott, and "The Highwayman" byAlfred Noyes.
Before McKennitt composes any music, she engages in considerable research on a specific subject which then forms the general concept of the album. Before creatingElemental andParallel Dreams, she travelled to Ireland for inspiration from the country's history,folklore, geography and culture. The albumThe Mask and Mirror was preceded by research in Spain where she studiedGalicia, a Celtic section of Spain, along with its abundant Arabic roots.[19] The result was an album that included elements of Celtic and Arabic music. According to the jacket notes, her albumAn Ancient Muse was inspired by travels among and reading about the various cultures along theSilk Road.
Late in the 1990s, McKennitt createdNo Journey's End, a half-hour documentary, for American television in which she discussed the influences behind her music.No Journey's End contained excerpts from several songs from the albumsParallel Dreams,The Visit, andThe 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 on DVD andVHS, 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, McKennitt releasedA Moveable Musical Feast, based on her 2007An Ancient Muse tour. The DVD included interviews with McKennitt, her band, crew, fans and professional colleagues from the Canadian music industry.
In 2005, McKennitt was involved in an acrimonious court case in England when her former friend and employee, Niema Ash, published a book,Travels with Loreena McKennitt: My Life as a Friend, that contained intimate details of their friendship.[20] McKennitt argued that much of the book contained confidential personal information that 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 set important precedents in the law of England and Wales on the privacy of public figures.[21] TheHouse of Lords affirmed the lower court's decisions in 2007.[22]
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McKennitt's personal awards and decorations include the following:
| Ribbon | Description | Notes |
| Order of Canada (CM) |
|
| Order of Manitoba (OM) |
|
| Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal |
|
| Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal |
|
| Canadian Forces' Decoration (CD) |
|
| Ordre des Arts et des Lettres |
|
| Quinlan Road | |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1985 |
| Founder | Loreena McKennitt |
| Genre | Folk,Celtic,world,new-age |
| Country of origin | Canada |
| Official website | www |
Quinlan Road is anindependent record label founded in 1985 and based inStratford, Ontario, Canada. It is owned and operated by its sole artist, Loreena McKennitt. Quinlan Road started out at McKennitt's home where she sold recordings by mail order. Today Quinlan Road music is distributed internationally byUniversal Music Group.
| Year | Album details | Peak chart positions | Certifications (sales threshold) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CAN [31][32] | AUS [33] | GER [34] | US [35] | |||
| 1985 | Elemental
| — | — | — | — | |
| 1987 | To Drive the Cold Winter Away
| — | — | — | — | |
| 1989 | Parallel Dreams
| — | — | — | — | |
| 1991 | The Visit
| 28 | — | — | — | |
| 1994 | The Mask and Mirror
| 4 | 21 | 18 | 143 | |
| 1997 | The Book of Secrets
| 3 | 33 | 7 | 17 | |
| 2006 | An Ancient Muse
| 9 | — | 15 | 83 |
|
| 2008 | A Midwinter Night's Dream
| 12 | — | 27 | 140 | |
| 2010 | The Wind That Shakes the Barley
| 13 | — | 28 | 141 | |
| 2018 | Lost Souls[43]
| 14 | — | 5 | 164 | |
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart | ||||||
| Year | Album details | Peak chart positions | Certifications (sales threshold) | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CAN [31][32] | GER [34] | US [35] | |||
| 1995 | Live in San Francisco at the Palace of Fine Arts
| — | — | — | |
| 1999 | Live in Paris and Toronto
| — | 65 | — | |
| 2007 | Nights from the Alhambra
| — | 11 | 190 | |
| 2009 | A Mediterranean Odyssey
| 11 | — | — | |
| 2012 | Troubadours on the Rhine
| 16 | 32 | — | |
| 2019 | Live at the Royal Albert Hall[45]
| — | 76 | — | |
| 2022 | Under a Winter's Moon[46]
| — | 41 | — | |
| 2024 | The Road Back Home
| — | 9 | — | |
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart | |||||
| Year | EP details | Peak chart positions | Certifications (sales threshold) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CAN [32] | AUS [33] | |||
| 1995 | A Winter Garden: Five Songs for the Season
| 44 | 93 |
|
| Year | Album details | Peak chart positions | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GER [34] | |||||
| 2009 | A Mummers' Dance Through Ireland
| — | |||
| 2013 | The Journey So Far – The Best of Loreena McKennitt
| 20 | |||
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart | |||||
| Year | Album details |
|---|---|
| 2008 | The Journey Begins
|
| Year | Single | Peak chart positions[48][49] | Album | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CAN | US | US AC | US Pop | |||
| 1991 | "The Lady of Shalott" | — | — | — | — | The Visit |
| "All Souls Night" | — | — | — | — | ||
| "Courtyard Lullaby" | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1993 | "Greensleeves" | — | — | — | — | |
| 1994 | "The Bonny Swans" | 75 | — | — | — | The Mask and Mirror |
| "Santiago" | — | — | — | — | ||
| "The Dark Night of the Soul" | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1995 | "The Mystic's Dream" | — | — | — | — | |
| "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen" | — | — | — | — | A Winter Garden: Five Songs for the Season | |
| 1997 | "The Mummers' Dance" | 10 | 18 | 23 | 14 | The Book of Secrets |
| 1998 | "Marco Polo" | — | — | — | — | |
| 2006 | "Caravanserai" | — | — | — | — | An Ancient Muse |
| 2007 | "Penelope's Song" | — | — | — | — | |
| 2008 | "The Seven Rejoices of Mary" | — | — | — | — | A Midwinter's Night Dream |
| "Noël Nouvelet!" | — | — | — | — | ||
| 2009 | "Dante's Prayer" | — | — | — | — | Non-album single |
| 2017 | "Breaking of the Sword" | 50 | — | — | — | Lost Souls |
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart | ||||||
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