With over 17 combined Canadian Folk Music, East Coast Music, and Music Nova Scotia awards and nominations, the JUNO-Nominated powerhouse duo, Cassie and Maggie, emerge as an unstoppable force on the global folk stage. Unleashing a magnetic energy, they seamlessly weave their deep Celtic heritage with contemporary influences. Committed to not just preserving but also propelling Nova Scotia’s folk traditions into new realms, Cassie and Maggie bring an exhilarating energy that is both timeless and irresistibly modern. Their eagerly anticipated 5th studio album, “Gold and Coal,” poised to solidify their status as folk music trailblazers.

Ella (Eilidh) Hanson is a fiddle and piano player, step dancer, and Gaelic speaker. She has been working and living in Nova Scotia’s Gaelic community for years and has been mentored in music and language by many tradition bearers, including Wendy MacIsaac. In addition to playing solo, Ella has also had the pleasure of working with her sister, Abby, as “Up With Gaelic”. They have spent time in the Atlantic Provinces and beyond, sharing their Gaelic culture.

Ella has been recognized in the Nova Scotia Legislature for her work in the Gaelic community, played for the Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia, and has played at many dances and events across Nova Scotia. Ella is delighted to be a part of the Schoolhouse Ceilidh series this summer.

Kimberley Holmes, a native of Carrolls Corner, Nova Scotia is an East Coast Music Award nominee and one of Canada‘s premier piano accompanists in the traditional style of fiddling. She has won many awards for fiddling, both in solo and group classes. She is the host accompanist and past Artistic Director of the Maritime Fiddle Festival. She has toured and recorded with numerous artists such as Graham Townsend, Calvin Vollrath and Richard Wood to name a few and is part of the groups, Bb Sisters and Tipsy 3.

She also teaches at home and is also an instructor at many fiddle camps in North America. In 2019, Kimberley was inducted into the Nova Scotia Country Music Hall of Fame and was the chairman for the 2023 Canadian Grand Masters Fiddling Competition held in Truro, NS Aug 26, 2023.

Skip Holmes has been playing professionally for over 45 years, and plays guitar, banjo, fiddle and mandolin. He has worked with fiddler Gordon Stobbe on a number of musical projects such the Gordon Stobbe Trio, Those Fabulous Cliches, the Ladies Choice Bluegrass Band, and the ATV musical variety TV show, Up Home Tonight.

He has toured North America and Europe with fiddler Richard Wood, and is featured on all his recordings. He has also worked with numerous well-known fiddlers such as Graham and Eleanor Townsend, Calvin Vollrath, Byron Berline, JP Cormier, Troy MacGillivray, Shane Cook, and Ivan Hicks. He is currently a member of the neotraditional trio, Papilio.

He has been teaching guitar, banjo, fiddle and mandolin at the Long and McQuade Lesson Centre (formerly the Canadian Conservatory of Music), since 1984, and is a frequent instructor at fiddle camps and workshops across Canada.

Renowned Cape Breton fiddler, Wendy MacIsaac, has been playing music for over 35 years. She is recognized as one of the ‘old school’ style of players who has helped keep the traditional sound alive.

Wendy is also a sought-after piano accompanist and step-dancer and is in high demand for her skills in teaching the Cape Breton style of fiddling, the latter of which she does throughout North America, as well as from her home in Halifax.

Wendy has eight albums to her credit, the latest one, All Hands (2019), which she recorded with Beòlach (beolach.ca), won two Canadian Folk Music Awards, a Nova Scotia Music Award, the Fans Choice ‘Entertainer of the Year’ award at the East Coast Music Awards and garnered a Juno nomination! Beòlach (which features both Wendy and Mairi Rankin), was the Artist in Residence at the 2019 Celtic Colours Festival in Cape Breton and appeared at the 2021 World Expo in Dubai.

For over twenty years, Kendra MacGillivray has brought fiddle music to life with her incredibly energetic performances with the fiddle. As a former Highland dancer, Kendra aims to make her fiddling lively and dancable with upbeat jigs, polkas and hornpipes, beautiful swaying waltzes and slow airs or selections of rhythmic strathspeys and reels that build in speed and intensity. She’s even been known to make a few steps while fiddling at the same time in high heels!

With numerous awards under her belt, including two prestigious East Coast Music Awards, including “Female Artist of the Year” and “Instrumental Artist of the Year” in 2002, Kendra travels the country, playing the traditional fiddling style from Eastern Nova Scotia.

Whether playing piano or fiddle, or showcasing his step dancing capabilities, Troy MacGillivray displays a unique sense of pride and commitment to his Celtic heritage and his music continues to add to the history and development of the traditional music that is the epitome of the Maritimes, the place he calls home! Troy MacGillivray’s musical prowess can be attributed to an especially rare combination of commitment and bloodline. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in music from St. Francis Xavier University, a diploma in recording engineering from McKenzie College, and in 2017 will receive his Masters of Ethnomusicology from the University of Limerick.

Troy has a roots-centered approach to his fiddling and piano playing that have led to the production of 6 CD’s (troymacgillivray.com), several of which received East Coast Music Association and Music Nova Scotia awards. His extensive touring has seen him travel across Canada and the United States, around the world to Ireland, Scotland, France, Germany, Australia, Denmark, and a trip to Afghanistan to play for the Canadian military.

Listening to fiddle tunes since a baby at his grandparents’ in Judique, Cape Breton, near Buddy MacMasters, Vincent is a gifted youth keeping Scottish music, dance, and language alive. At 15, he took to the traditional Cape Breton tunes and received the Treasures of Youth Fund from Iona’s Highland Village which inspired him to keep playing.

Vincent has taken lessons from Kyle of the Barra MacNeils, and has been mentored by Cameron Chisholm. Vincent plays in venues from museums to pubs, churches, dance halls, and the Celtic Colours Festival as a Cape Breton Fiddlers Association member.

His repertoire notes square dancing and sometimes performing solo as a step-dancer. Vincent’s also advanced Gaelic speaker, a community group member to advance the culture, and a fiddle teacher to other youth.

First cousin to the hugely influential Rankin Family—legends on the Canadian music scene—Mairi Rankin plays fiddle and step-dances up a storm. Born in Mabou, Nova Scotia, she has been influenced by some of the best Cape Breton traditional musicians and instructors on the island. Being immersed in such a rich musical culture has enabled her to develop her own unique style.

Mairi performs with the Cape Breton super-group Beòlach (beolach.ca), who’s 2019 release, All Hands, won two Canadian Folk Music Awards, the Fans Choice ‘Entertainer of the Year’ award at the East Coast Music Awards, and a Nova Scotia Music Award. The album also received a Juno nomination in 2021. For the past twelve years, she has also been part of the internationally renowned Celtic group The Outside Track, which is currently touring its fifth studio album, Rise Up.

In 2019 Mairi collaborated with cellist Eric Wright from The Fretless and created The Cabin Sessions, which won the Canadian Folk Music Award for Instrumental Group of the Year in 2020.