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’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.” —Christie Marcy
See more Small Lake City Concerts here. Salt Lake Magazine’s Small Lake City Concerts were produced by Natalie Simpson of Beehive Photography and Video.
