Biography
Loreena McKennitt (born February 17, 1957) is a Canadian singer, songwriter, composer who writes, records and performs music with Celtic and Middle Eastern influences. Born in Morden, Manitoba, to a family of Irish and Scottish descent, she enrolled at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg to become a veterinarian, but music won her over. After appearing at the Winnipeg Folk Music Festival in 1974, she developed a keen interest in Celtic music and visited Ireland to research it herself. She learned to play the Celtic harp and started giving outdoor concerts in various places to raise money to record her first album. It was called Elemental and was released in 1985.
Then she recorded, with great success, the albums: "To Drive the Cold Winter Away" 1987, Parallel Dreams 1989), The Visit (1991), The Mask and Mirror ( 1994), A Winter Garden (1995), The Book of Secrets (1997), An Ancient Muse (2006), A Midwinter Night's Dream (2008), and The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2010).
Her music and songs have been featured in the films The Santa Clause, Soldier, Jade, Holy Man, The Mists of Avalon, and Tinkerbell, as well as the television series Roar, Due South, and Full Circle (Women and Spirituality)