What’s happening

April 22, 2012

The Barra MacNeils celebrate 25 Years

By Dan McPeake, !earshot The Barra MacNeils have been Canada’s Celtic Ambassadors for 25 years and celebrate with the Symphony Orchestra. “It’s what we grew up with” states Stuart MacNeil, thinking back to the origins of the Barra MacNeils 25 years ago. MacNeil and his siblings, Lucy, Sheamus, and Kyle,have established themselves as Canada’s Celtic […]

April 21, 2012

Latest CD features the six C.B. siblings sharing 20 instruments, with SNS adding overdrive

Stephen Cooke, Halifax Herald CAPE BRETON’S BARRA MACNEILS are like an orchestra unto themselves, with its five brothers and one sister sharing 20 instruments between them, over a bass-and-drums rhythm section. Their sound is powerful to be sure, so imagine their fiery reels and poignant ballads amplified by Symphony Nova Scotia. It’s like James Cameron […]

April 19, 2012

The Barra MacNeils partner with Symphony Nova Scotia on new album

Laura Jean Grant, Cape Breton Post SYDNEY — The Barra MacNeils are equally at home at local square dances as they are on stage at major concert halls, a quality that has served the band well in a career spanning 25 years. “It really is a testament of the versatility of the band,” said Stewart […]

March 26, 2012

Canada’s Celtic ambassadors mark their 25th anniversary with release of new symphonic recording

The Barra MacNeils with Symphony Nova Scotia (Live) – In Stores April 10, 2012 For Immediate Release – Toronto, Canada There is something special about a live Barra MacNeils’ performance. Over the past 25 years this group of siblings from Sydney Mines, Nova Scotia has built deep, almost indefinable, connections with fans around the world […]

March 15, 2012

Two cars as fit as a fiddle

Petrina Gentile, The Globe and Mail Kyle MacNeil Profession: Musician (fiddle, guitar, violin, mandolin) Age: 49 Hometown: Cape Breton, N.S. Notable achievements He and his siblings have released 14 CDs beginning with their first album, The Barra MacNeils in 1986 Studied classical music at Mount Allison University The group takes its name from the Scottish […]

March 10, 2012

The Barra MacNeils and the VSO: a tour of Celtic music

Krista Morrow, The Martlet Celtic music has many iterations: lively jigs and reels for dancing in the neighbour’s kitchen; rhythmic shanties for hauling in the East Coast cod; haunting pipe solos that echo across the rolling downs and bring back a long lost love. The Barra MacNeils and the Victoria Symphony Orchestra (VSO) teamed up […]

March 1, 2012

Symphonic Celtic: Family band gets to the root of Cape Breton style

By Amy Smart, Times Colonist Some would say Celtic music’s cultural currency peaked in the 1990s, when Cape Breton’s Ashley MacIsaac, Natalie MacMaster and the Rankin Family fiddled and toe-tapped their way onto Top 40 charts. Fellow Cape Bretoner Stewart MacNeil of the family band the Barra MacNeils begs to differ. “The music has a […]

Bi-coastal Celtic celebration

Mary Ellen Green, Monday Magazine Get ready for a bi-coastal celebration with Celtic superstars the Barra MacNeils and the Victoria Symphony March 1 – 3 at the Royal Theatre. Twenty-five years after the Barra MacNeils went into the studio to record their self-titled debut album, the six siblings and multi-instrumentalists from Sydney Mines, Cape Breton […]

December 10, 2011

The Barras Go to PEI

The Barra MacNeils visit The Culinary Institute of Canada at Holland College in Charlottetown, PEI the day of their show at the Confederation Centre.