Loreena McKennitt

BIOGRAPHY

Canadian singer/composer Loreena McKennitt is self-managed, self-produced, and the head of her own internationally-successful record label, Quinlan Road. In a recording career spanning nearly two decades, McKennitt's "eclectic Celtic" music has won critical acclaim and multiple sales awards in North and South America, Europe and Australasia. An active member of her community in Stratford, 717v2115h Ontario, Canada, McKennitt has founded and oversees important charitable undertakings in the fields of water safety and family/childhood support services.

Record Sales

Nearly 13 million albums sold worldwide, to date, over a catalogue spanning six studio albums and one double live CD.

Canadian sales awards include one five-times platinum certification for sales of over 500,000 copies (The Visit), two four-times platinum certifications for sales of over 400,000 copies (The Mask And Mirror, The Book Of Secrets), and four gold certifications for sales of over 50,000 copies (Elemental, To Drive The Cold Winter Away, Parallel Dreams, A Winter Garden: Five Songs For The Season)

US sales awards include one double-platinum certification for sales of over two million copies for The Book Of Secrets, whose success was led by the radio-driven Top 20 Billboard success of hit single "The Mummers' Dance", which would go on to meet similar success worldwide. US sales awards also include two platinum certifications for sales of over one million copies (The Mask And Mirror, The Visit)

Gold, platinum and multi-platinum sales awards in Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, France, Spain, Italy, Greece, Turkey

Awards and Honours

Finalist, The DuMaurier Search for Talent, 1978

Canadian representative Performer, UNESCO Paris 1978

Canadian representative Performer, Expo Japan 1985

Juno Award, Best Roots/Traditional Album1992, for The Visit

Juno Award, Best Roots/Traditional Album 1994, for The Mask And Mirror

Billboard International Achievement Award, 1997

Individual Recipient 2002, The Stratford Beacon-Herald Garden of Appreciation Award

Headline performer for HRH Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, The Golden Jubilee Celebrations, Province of Manitoba, 2002

Honourary Doctor of Letters, Wilfrid Laurier University, 2002

Commemorative Medal for the Golden Jubilee of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, 2003

Biographical Background

Born in Morden, Manitoba, Canada of Scottish and Irish heritage, and the daughter of Irene, a community nurse, and the late Jack, a livestock dealer.

Originally intending to train as a veterinarian, McKennitt was drawn at an early age to music, going on to represent her country abroad in France and Japan.

In 1981, she moved to Stratford, Ontario, where she still resides, and acted, composed and sang at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in productions including The Tempest (1982) and The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1984)

She began her career as a recording artist in 1985 with the self-produced, self-released cassette Elemental. Its production was funded by a small loan from her family, and from the proceeds she earned busking with her harp in Toronto, Vancouver and London, England.

Quinlan Road, her label, was named for a rural road in Stratford. In its first fledgling years, McKennitt ran the label from her kitchen table, selling recordings by mail order. Eventually the company expanded to an office in a Stratford heritage building, with over a dozen employees in Canada and abroad.

Collaborations/Soundtrack Use

Original music for The Merchant of Venice, The Stratford Shakespeare Festival, 2001

Original music for the National Film Board of Canada Studio D documentary series Women And Spirituality, 1985 - 1989

Film soundtrack contributions include Hollywood productions Highlander III and The Santa Clause, Jean-Claude Lauzon's feature film Léolo and the Canadian/Venezuelan feature film Una Casa Con Vista Al Mar.

Television soundtrack use includes TNT's epic miniseries The Mists Of Avalon (2001), Due South, Northern Exposure

Charity/Community Work

Founded The Cook-Rees Memorial Fund for Water Search and Safety in 1998 and helmed a fundraising drive that has to date raised nearly $4,000,000 Canadian for the Fund's initiatives in the fields of water safety education, research and support for water search and recovery units across the country. A major portion of the money raised for the CRMF came from sales of the Loreena McKennitt recording, Live In Paris And Toronto.

Donated monies raised by sales of Live In Paris And Toronto in Turkey and Greece to the Red Crescent Turkey (Earthquake Relief Fund) and the Hellenic Red Cross (Earthquake Relief and Preparedness Fund) respectively.

Purchased the Falstaff School in Stratford in 2000 and, in 2002, founded the Falstaff Family Centre, which houses and offers facilities to a number of volunteer and not-for-profit community and family groups.

Founder of The Three Oaks Foundation, a charitable body which gives money to cultural, environmental, historical and social groups.

Major donor to multipurpose arts facility The Discovery Centre in Stratford, Ontario, and named a floor there in honour of First Nations poet E. Pauline Johnson

Discography

Elemental (Quinlan Road, 1985)

To Drive The Cold Winter Away (Quinlan Road, 1987)

Parallel Dreams   (Quinlan Road, 1989)

The Visit (Quinlan Road/Warner Music Group, 1991)

The Mask And Mirror (Quinlan Road/Warner Music Group, 1994)

A Winter Garden: Five Songs For The Season (Quinlan Road/Warner Music Group, 1995)

The Book Of Secrets (Quinlan Road/Warner Music Group, 1997)

Live In Paris And Toronto (Quinlan Road, 1999)