A Morden-born musician who has taken her music around the world is receiving another national honour, and her brother says the community has every reason to celebrate.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Loreena McKennitt has been appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada, recognizing her contributions to music and culture. Her brother, Warren McKennitt, said he is proud to see his sister\u2019s decades-long career recognized.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I\u2019m proud of her,” Warren said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Warren, who still farms in the Morden area, reflected on his sister\u2019s early years and the musical talent he watched develop while they were growing up.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A gift recognized at a young age\u00a0<\/p>\n
Warren recalled how Olga Friesen recognized Loreena\u2019s musical ability when she was five years old.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He explained that Friesen discovered Loreena had perfect pitch, a musical ability that allows someone to identify or reproduce notes accurately.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I’d say Olga was probably the visionary, if you want to call anybody a visionary as far as my sister’s concerned, in that she recognized when my sister was five that she had a gift,” Warren said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I think we’d best call it, a gift of music.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
Warren remembered that the family did not understand what perfect pitch meant at the time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I didn’t understand until I was trying to write my first music exam,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Looking back, Warren said he realized the significance of Loreena\u2019s ability.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Over time, it proved to be a valuable asset for Loreena,” Warren said. “It allowed her to be creative.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
He described that early musical gift as something that helped shape the path Loreena would take.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“She was gifted probably at birth,” Warren said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A musical path begins in Morden\u00a0<\/p>\n
Warren traced Loreena\u2019s musical journey back to the Pembina Valley before it eventually took her around the world.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He recalled her performing at a folk concert in Morden in the early 1970s, after which she continued developing her skills through additional lessons and experience.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Warren explained that Loreena took singing lessons in the city and continued with further music lessons after Olga Friesen was finished teaching her.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As a teenager, Warren remembered Loreena learning to play guitar, despite not having anyone in the household who could teach her.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“She learned to play the guitar, but she played it upside down,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Warren pointed to that willingness to find her own way as something that became part of her career.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“There’s no rules saying you can’t do it that way,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Related stories:<\/p>\n
Building a career on her own terms\u00a0<\/p>\n
Warren described Loreena\u2019s approach to music as independent from the beginning.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“She was one of the first to self-publish and set her own rules,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He recalled that record labels were not initially interested in working with Loreena, so she found another way forward.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“She went to the labels and first they didn’t want to have anything to do with her,” Warren said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“And then she said, well, okay, I’ll just do it my way.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
Before gaining international recognition, Warren recalled Loreena busking on street corners in Canada and Europe.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“She did it because no industry was going to put up the money to tour,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Warren described her approach simply.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“She’s okay, fine. I’ll figure out how to do it.” \u00a0<\/p>\n
Reflecting on Loreena\u2019s international career, Warren said her music has taken her far beyond the Pembina Valley and introduced her to people around the world.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“She’s met people all over the world and travelled all over, toured all over the world,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For Warren, that journey has also made Loreena someone who represents Canada wherever she goes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“In the meantime, probably a pretty darn good ambassador Canada.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
A source of pride for Morden\u00a0<\/p>\n
Warren pointed to Loreena\u2019s accomplishments as something Morden can celebrate.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Morden, I think, has a reason to be proud of her,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Recently, Loreena McKennitt was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 2025, following a career that has included worldwide album sales and recognition for her unique blend of musical influences.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Warren noted the Order of Canada appointment is another milestone in what he described as his sister\u2019s continuing journey.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He also mentioned Loreena recently received recognition from France for her cultural achievements, being named an Officer of the National Order of Arts and Letters by France\u2019s Ministry of Culture.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For Warren, the honours are part of a journey that began in Morden with a young girl whose musical gift was recognized early.\u00a0<\/p>\n
From those first signs of talent at age five to performing for audiences around the world, Warren said Loreena has continued to follow her own path.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“There’s no rules saying you can’t do it that way,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Warren said the community that watched her journey begin has every reason to celebrate what she has accomplished.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Morden, I think, has a reason to be proud of her,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Morden-born musician who has taken her music around the world is receiving another national honour, and her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":801503,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[49,48,361,75],"class_list":["post-801502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=801502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801502\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/801503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=801502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=801502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=801502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}