About

Leading up to the excitement of this year’s Boxwood Festival in Lunenburg, we are delighted to welcome the dazzling artistry of Boxwood Festival’s founder and director Chris Norman to perform a solo concert on Saturday July 13 at 11 am. “… a flute player of spectacular and imaginative virtuosity” (New Yorker), Chris’s talent is renowned world wide, with an impressive cachet of recordings, myriad performances, and his festival garnering an international presence year on year. Here in Nova Scotia we admire the work he pours into this community and are proud he calls the south shore home, continuing to have much anticipation for the Festival’s activities each July! This is a perfect setting to hear all the intricacy and nuance of Chris’ playing up close, and will be enjoyed overlooking a spectacular view of Mader’s Cove.

About Chris Norman

“A flute superstar … the musicianship just came wailing out”
– Toronto Globe & Mail

“… Norman stands out for his spirited eclecticism … His rootsy heritage shines through in every nuanced embellishment, trill, triple tonguing, and silky slide. It’s clear that Norman is having a ball, with the chops to make it sound effortless.”
– Billboard Magazine

Powered by his love and mastery of the simple wooden flute, Chris Norman has gained an international profile over the past three decades via his critically praised work as a performer, composer, teacher, flute-maker and builder of a musical community.

Born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Chris developed an early passion for traditional Maritime, Celtic and French Canadian music. As a performer and composer, he is a champion and standard-bearer for these forms while simultaneously exploring their boundaries and fusing them with classical styles. The recipient of numerous grants and commissions, Chris has shared his creativity and ingenuity around the world in the form of compositions featured on National Public Radio, the CBC, the BBC, and concert halls from Canada to New Zealand. His composing and playing have also appeared in more than 40 commercially released CDs which range from solo efforts to recordings as part of a duo or ensemble. His recorded work has earned numerous awards, including Indie Awards for best Celtic Album and best Seasonal Album, and a CBC Listeners Choice Awards. He has toured as a solo performer in recitals and with orchestras, as a duo with violinist David Greenberg and with his eponymous group The Chris Norman Ensemble. He has also been a prominent player in international touring ensembles such as Helicon, Skyedance, the Baltimore Consort and Scotland’s Concerto Caledonia.

He is a maker not only of music with the flute, but of flutes themselves, creating bespoke instruments for players worldwide. In this pursuit he has received mentorship from prominent flute-makers Rod Cameron, Robert Bigio and Michael Grinter among others. He is well versed in traditional machining techniques as well as CNC and 3D modeling, and is a talented hand-engraver of his silverwork in a flare-cut style, having studied under master engravers Sam Alfano, Diane Scalese, and Rod Cameron.

He is the driving force behind Boxwood Festivals, whose annual weeklong celebrations of traditional music have taken place in Canada, The USA, Australia and New Zealand, and on-line for the past 26 years. As founder and director of the festival, Chris unites and inspires musicians, teachers, academics, flute-makers and engages a multi-generational, multi-disciplinary community – an achievement that is the subject of a documentary film Scattering of the Stars released in 2017. In recognition of his significant, unique and wide-ranging achievements he was presented with the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for contributions to the arts in Canada in 2012, and awarded the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa by Dalhousie University in 2015.