Katie McNally

Katie McNally grew up playing Scottish and Cape Breton music in Boston, Massachusetts. Called “the new face of Scottish fiddling in the USA” by The Living Tradition and "ground-breaking” by Folk Radio UK, she has made waves in both the American folk music scene and abroad since the release of her debut album, Flourish, in 2013. A member of the cross-genre fiddle supergroup Childsplay and Gaelic-language band Fàrsan, Katie also tours as a solo artist and has supported such luminaries as Carlos Núñez, Karan Casey, and John Whelan. She has appeared at the Newport Folk Festival, Celtic Connections, Celtic Colours, and The Festival of American Fiddle Tunes, as well as countless folk venues throughout North America and Europe. As a native Bostonian with Canadian roots, she recorded her latest album, The Boston States, in Cape Breton in 2016. Under the guidance of producer Wendy MacIsaac (Beolach), McNally curated a collection of tunes that draws inspiration from mid-century recordings of Cape Breton fiddlers both in Nova Scotia and Massachusetts. It was lauded as “A superb album, and certainly one of the best modern Cape Breton records of the past ten years” by Irish Music Magazine. In addition to her busy touring schedule, Katie is a devoted educator who teaches regularly at fiddle courses and gives private lessons at her home in Portland, ME. Her own school, the Boston States Scottish Fiddle Camp will run for the first time in August 2020.