Folk baroque blends classical with traditional in concert
It’s not all that different, says Karen MacLeod
KITCHENER — Though the term baroque refers to a period in history when artistic expression was heavily embellished and colourful, folksinger/ songwriter Karen MacLeod also sees it as time when music was less compartmentalized.
“My music is a reflection of the time where there was no distinction between musicians who played folk or classical,” she said. Peers and students of both genres regularly moved between the two styles of music.
The distinction has widened over the generations and MacLeod is determined to encourage her audiences to see the beauty and value in both.
MacLeod performs “Folk baroque” Saturday at the Registry Theatre, accompanied by mother/son duo, champion fiddler, Saskia Tomkins and bodhran master, Oisin Hannigan.
Tomkins is an example of moving between different genres. The British-born singer performs traditional, as well as classical music and just about everything in between.
MacLeod herself did not have a traditional path to a career in music.
The Ontario-born, Chicago raised musician was lucky enough to attend an American high school where there was a strong emphasis on its music program. But really, she started singing much, much earlier.
“As a three year old you don’t know how you shouldn’t be singing,” she said. “You do it as part of who you are.”
At age four, she was in the car with her father listening to the radio when she suddenly started harmonizing with a song. It was a song she had never heard before but the harmonizing came easily. MacLeod still laughs at her father’s expression of surprise and a bit of trepidation that it was obvious they had another musician in the house. Both her parents are musicians and understood the pitfalls of trying to make a career out of music.
At age seven she remembers shaking in the girls bathroom after a try out for the church choir, excited by the process, thrilled to be singing but unsure how to interpret or handle her emotions.
After high school she returned to Ontario, attending McMaster University and she ended up working in the health field. Music took a back seat, for more than a decade. It all changed when she went to see a friend perform with the Grand Philharmonic Choir, in Kitchener.
The spark was lit again and with her brother’s encouragement, MacLeod spent a year studying vocal performance with soprano Stephanie Kramer before she was ready to audition for the choir.
MacLeod sang with both the choir and its smaller chamber choir for eight and seven years respectively, now she is performing solo concerts.
“I’m not really seeking to have a huge performance career,” said MacLeod, who by day works in social assistance for the Region of Waterloo. “I thought ‘let’s see where this can take me.’ Never say die.”
The singer has studied at the University of Toronto’s School of Celtic Studies and she has studied jazz at Mohawk College as well as taught voice. Her music, which covers many genres, was influenced by her Scottish heritage discovered on a visit a few years ago.
Though her grandfather lost touch with the family when he immigrated to Canada, finding where the MacLeod clan came from was not difficult. As she said, it’s a big clan and they pretty much dominate the Isle of Skye. She even tracked down the croft where her grandfather was born.
Her time in Scotland was mostly about hiking, not music but the feel of the place, that sense of history and close knit community had a profound effect.
“I discovered my Scottish ancestry and the music,” she said. “I’ve always loved the older music, traditional music.”
Scottish music in particular appeals to her. “It’s the wistfulness,” she said. “There’s a melancholy to it, it’s really beautiful.”