Loreena Mckennitt Biography

Early Life and Education

Loreena Isabel Irene McKennitt, known as Loreena McKennitt is a Canadian musician, composer, harpist, accordionist, and pianist, born on February 17, 1957, in Morden, Manitoba, Canada to father Jack McKennitt(died 1992) and mother, Irene McKennit(died 2011). 

McKennitt is of Irish and Scottish descent. Later, in 1981 she moved to Stratford, Ontario, and started living there along with her brother Warren McKennitt.

When McKennitt was young, she wanted to become a veterinarian, but she chose music. Following her passion for Celtic music, she learned to play the Celtic harp and started busking at various places, like St.Lawrence Market in Toronto to collect money to record her first album.

In 2002, Wilfrid Laurier University honored her with the Honorary Doctor of Letters. In June 2005, she received an Honorary Doctor of Laws from the University of Manitoba and also from Queen's University in October 2005.

Career

Loreena's first album, Element, was released in 1985. Later she released albums like To Drive the Cold Winter Away (1987), Parallel Dreams (1989), and The Visit (1991).

Further, she released 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), which was released under her own label Quinlan Road.

In 1990, McKennit contributed music for the National Film Board of Canada documentary, The Burning Times, which was a feminist revisionist account of the Early Modern European Witchcraft trials. 

In 1993, she went on a Europe tour to support Mike Oldfield. In 1995, she featured in the Highlander series with her version of the traditional Irish song "Bonny Portmore."

During the spring of 1997, her single "The Mummers Dance" got airplay in North American markets, and the song was also used as the theme song on the short-lived TV series Legacy and also in the trailer for wide-release 1998 Drew Barrymore's movie Ever After.

In 1992, she received Juno Award, for Best Roots/Traditional Album 1992 for her album The Visit and later, in 1994 she was rewarded with the same award for Mask and Mirror. McKennitt was also nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary World Music Album in 2007. Again in 2012, she was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best New Age Album.

Does Loreena McKennitt Have a Husband? What's Her Relationship Status?

Loreen McKennitt has never been married in her life hence, she has no husband. But she was engaged with Ronald Rees, who was an Author. In 1998, her fiance Ronald died in a boating accident in Georgian Bay, along with his brother Richard and close friend Gregory Cook.

After that incident, she was deeply moved and subsequently established the Cook-Rees Memorial Fund for Water Search and Safety in the same year. After the death of Ronald, McKennitt has not dated anyone and seems to be single.

The Cook-Rees Memorial Fund for Water Search and Safety, established in 1998, raised funds of more than $4 million for water safety education and also for rescue and recovery operations.

Net Worth

As of 2017, Loreena McKennit's net worth is estimated to be around $700,000, which she earned from her albums.

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