Tonight's CPO concert features Natalie MacMaster, who is noticeably pregnant but still dancing and fiddling up a storm. The program features several arrangements of Cape Breton fiddling tunes, with a helping of fruitcake on the side in the form of Rudolph, a Christmas medley, and the Londonderry Air, 'Danny Boy'.

I wasn't aware of just how big a scene fiddling is in Canada -- there are Irish bars here in Calgary where you can go hear traditional fiddlers jam every week, and several CPO violinists are experienced fiddlers as well. The bass parts to these tunes can be spectacularly boring, with the same three-chord progression repeated dozens of times, but the better arrangements will usually have some clever variations and a nifty modulation or two. This morning's rehearsal was largely spent getting the balance and levels right, since fiddling over a live orchestra takes a certain degree of amplification.