Young pianist brings a lot (and a piano) to Sessions
June 3, 2025
Iain MacQuarrie plays the piano at Admiral Café and Lounge that he rescued from the Heatherton Community Centre in December.
Musician Iain MacQuarrie has been a staple at the weekly Wednesday Sessions in Port Hood since they began a year ago, and he recently added piano rescuing to his repertoire.
Just before Christmas, MacQuarrie and some friends, including Melody and Derrick Cameron – themselves regular performers at the weekly event – headed for Heatherton, Antigonish County, to salvage a piano that was no longer needed by the community centre. The piano now graces the stage of the Admiral Lounge and Café, as does MacQuarrie every chance he gets.
“I’m willing to do it for anybody,” MacQuarrie said recently. “I’m just happy to save these acoustic pianos that people are getting rid of.”
“Happy” also describes Tammy MacDonald, who coordinates events at the Admiral, who said that from the very beginning MacQuarrie has been an integral part of the Wednesday Sessions, which features some of the best Celtic music performers in the area.
She said the arrival of the piano was “100 per cent Iain.”
“He said to me, ‘God it would be great to have a piano in here,’” MacDonald recalled. “And I said, ‘not in the budget, Iain.’ But then he said, ‘People are giving them away.’”
“My sister found out there was a piano at the community centre in Heatherton where she lived, so I messaged Iain. He said, ‘I’ll go right now.’”
MacDonald said she can’t say enough about what MacQuarrie has contributed to the Wednesday Sessions – besides a piano of course.
“He is a passionate young man” she said. “He is the heart of our sessions. People come just to see him because his whole body smiles when he’s playing. We just love him.”
She said it’s “incredible” to think the 20-year-old MacQuarrie only began playing publicly when the Sessions began in April 2024.
“I told his mother, ‘He’ll be the next big thing. He’ll be a Cape Breton legend one day.’”
MacQuarrie is quick to give MacDonald credit for helping to create a place where singers and musicians aren’t afraid to share their talents, regardless of their level of experience.”
“It’s more like a community hub than a tavern,” he said. “It’s so crazy to walk in somewhere in the middle of February, and you have people sitting at their tables talking and doing their thing, you have some people at the pool tables playing pool, and you have the musicians on the stage playing and talking about the tunes. It’s such a great atmosphere to have, especially in the middle of February, when it’s so cold and dark.”
MacQuarrie said he’s been interested in music since he was a kid, but that he’s only started playing a lot over the past year.
“I also play fiddle, but piano is about 90 per cent of what I do,” he said. “Last summer I was playing (piano) every day, sometimes twice a day.”
“Things like the Admiral make it easier to go out and try it with everybody,” MacQuarrie said. “It’s not like you’re playing a gig all by yourself. You just bring your fiddle along and you try a couple of sets.”
The young pianist comes from a musical family. His uncle, Howie MacDonald, is one of the most sought-after fiddlers in Cape Breton. His mother, Cheryl MacQuarrie, is an accomplished step dancer. His great-great grandfather, John Alex MacDonald, was tall in stature (six feet, four inches) and long on talent. Known as The Big Fiddler, he was a preeminent performer in Inverness County a century ago.
Where his musical talents take him remains to be seen. For now, MacQuarrie is busy travelling between his home in Mabou and New Brunswick, where he’s enrolled at Moncton Flight School. He said he’s looking at a number of career options.
“I’d eventually like to go commercial with the airlines, but I’m in no rush to get there,” he said. “I’m enjoying it here.”