The Cottars

THE COTTARS ARE SOARING!

To date, teenagers Ciarán & Fiona MacGillivray have blazed an amazing trail, having travelled the globe for six years as lead singers and instrumentalists with The Cottars, Cape Breton’s fastest rising Celtic band. They?ve toured in Japan (twice), in Denmark, and appeared in over 30 US states—from Maine to Texas and from New York to California. They?ve also crossed their native Canada many times. Other career highlights include an appearance at The Newport Folk Festival (where Bob Dylan shared the bill!), shows for Senator Ted Kennedy and Wayne Gretzky, sold-out symphony concerts and a 25-city tour of the US with The Chieftains which featured an unforgettable evening at Carnegie Hall! In addition, they?ve recorded 3 CD?s, have won 2 ECMA?s and 2 MIANS Awards, and have starred in several television specials. They’ve shared the stage with such entertainers as Natalie MacMaster, Bruce Cockburn, The Barra MacNeils, Ireland?s Altan and Danu, and many, many others.

The MacGillivrays both sing and stepdance, and each is a multi- instrumentalist—playing between them: piano, guitar, tin whistle, Irish bouzouki, Irish flute, bodhran, and Celtic harp The siblings are known on three continents for their show-stopping arrangement of The Cottars? anthem, “The Briar & The Rose”. 16-year old Claire Pettit, the youngest member of the band, is also a gifted instrumentalist, singer, composer and dancer. Accomplished on both the violin and viola, she has studied traditional Cape Breton fiddling with several of the Island?s legendary masters. Her appearances with the quartet in western and eastern Canada, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Massachusetts, and across California have earned her rave reviews by music critics. The Chronicle Herald recently called her “a fiery fiddler with great technical command of her instrument!”

The band's lead guitarist is Bruce Timmons, one of the most respected accompanists in the Maritimes today, having toured or recorded with the best-known musicians on the East Coast—from John Allan Cameron and The Men Of The Deeps to The Rankin Family. A proud Cape Bretoner, he specializes in not only Celtic music but also jazz and contemporary styles, and his instrumental prowess & versatility have enabled the group?s sound to reach new levels of excitement and originality. Scotland?s legendary songwriter Dougie MacLean calls this foursome “brilliant”, and North Americans agree. During a recent 9-city tour of Eastern Canada, audiences consistently stood and screamed for encores after the finale (and even rose to their feet once or twice early in the program), enchanted by warmth and vitality of this impressive Celtic quartet.