Few performers exhibit the excitement that marks Natalie MacMaster’s shows. Less than a year after the birth of her fourth child, the Canadian fiddler brings “Christmas in Cape Breton” to George Mason University Center for the Arts, full of traditional Celtic music. “I’m motivated by love and music that moves,” she said. “I can be tired and the minute I get on stage I’m filled with energy. Growing up in Cape Breton, I enjoyed a very traditional Christmas. I remember going with my dad to the woods to get a tree that we hung with homemade decorations about the 20th of December. Then we went to our rooms to wrap gifts secretly while our mother baked cookies. We spent Christmas Day at our grandmother’s house, then entertained visitors and went visiting. The next day, Boxing Day, we’d square dance.”

MacMaster learned her instrument from her uncle Buddy MacMaster, the famous Cape Breton fiddler. Although her parents did not play, her father encouraged her to practice. To this day, she relies on him for criticism.