Kate MacLeod was classically trained on the violin as a young child but now she plays the fiddle. “A fiddle costs a few hundred dollars and a violin costs a few thousand,” she jokes. “It really comes down to style. There’s no difference between the instruments.”
MacLeod will host a book launch party for her new songbook featuring instrumental compositions—with a music workshop and evening concert on November 10 at Pale Horse Recording Studio in Sugar House. More details can be found at katemacleod.com. saltlakemagazine.com/small-lake
MacLeod’s style is a unique Americana-meets-Celtic, with a touch of her Quaker peace-making sensibilities thrown in for good measure. Fresh off an 11-week artist-in-residence program at the Pendle Hill Quaker Study, Retreat and Conference Center in Pennsylvania, where she created “peace motivating and inspirational music,” she’s more ready than ever to take on the folk tradition of uniting people through music.
To that end, the singer-songwriter-and-composer has released songbooks containing sheet music so that others can learn to play her compositions. “I’m putting these pieces in a book so that people can play them themselves so that they can be part of music,” she says, “It’s living and breathing music.”
MacLeod says her advice to anyone who wants to play or compose music is simple. Do it. “I create music based on what I see and feel around me right now and I believe people can create music in the space they are in,” she says, adding, “Don’t sit on the sidelines—create. Music is supposed to enrich your life.”
The space MacLeod is in is Utah, so, many of her songs are inspired by the natural landscape and she is an outspoken proponent for public lands. But, she says, everyone is welcome at her performances, many of which are in more rural parts of the state. “Theres something about music that bridges differences,” she says, “I realize in my performances that in the same audience are people from all different sides of things. I don’t I tell them how I personally feel, or what I’m angry or frustrated about. What I say is ‘This land is so beautiful.’ I find more common ground. I want people to work it out.”
See all of our Small Lake City Concerts here.
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