One of the Maritime

Maritimes

The Maritime provinces, also called the Maritimes or the Canadian Maritimes, is a region of Eastern Canada consisting of three provinces, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. On the Atlantic coast, the Maritimes are a subregion of Atlantic Canada, which also includes the...

 provinces of Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, Prince Edward Island

Prince Edward Island

Prince Edward Island is a Canadian province consisting of an island of the same name, as well as other islands. The maritime province is the smallest in the nation in both land area and population...

 is known as a home for traditional Celtic music

Celtic music

Celtic music is a term utilised by artists, record companies, music stores and music magazines to describe a broad grouping of musical genres that evolved out of the folk musical traditions of the Celtic people of Western Europe...

. The island has produced ECMA

ECMA

Ecma or ECMA may refer to:* Ecma International, an international standards organization for Information Communication Technology and Consumer Electronics* Engineering College Magazines Associated, a group of student-run engineering-based publications...

-award winning fiddle

Fiddle

The term fiddle may refer to any bowed string musical instrument, most often the violin. It is also a colloquial term for the instrument used by players in all genres, including classical music...

rs Richard Wood

Richard Wood

Richard Marlon Wood is a former American football All-American linebacker who played in the National Football League.-College career:...

 and J. J. Chaisson as well as the award winning singer-songwritwer, Lennie Gallant

Lennie Gallant

Lennie Gallant, CM is a Canadian singer-songwriter. His music crosses into the folk, Celtic, rock and country music genres...

. The celebrated Stompin' Tom Connors

Stompin' Tom Connors

Charles Thomas "Stompin' Tom" Connors, OC is one of Canada's most prolific and well-known country and folk singers.He lives in Wellington County, Ontario.- Early life :...

 also lived in Skinners Pond

Skinners Pond, Prince Edward Island

Skinners Pond is a rural community in Prince County, Prince Edward Island.It is located northwest of the village of Tignish in the township of Lot 1, near the northwestern tip of the province. The primary industries for the area are agriculture and fishing....

.
Prominent bands include the bluegrass band Bluestreak, who won seven prizes in the 2004 Prince Edward Island Music Awards

Prince Edward Island Music Awards

The Prince Edward Island Music Awards, also referred to as the PEI Music Awards, are an annual set of awards distributed at the beginning of each year to honour musicians and musical works from the Canadian province of Prince Edward Island, in the region of Atlantic Canada...

.

Record label

Record label

In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...

s on Prince Edward Island include Islander Records.

Other prominent musicians include Albert and Chuck Arsenault of the Acadia

Acadia

Acadia was the name given to lands in a portion of the French colonial empire of New France, in northeastern North America that included parts of eastern Quebec, the Maritime provinces, and modern-day Maine. At the end of the 16th century, France claimed territory stretching as far south as...

n band Barachois

Barachois (band)

Barachois is a Canadian band from Prince Edward Island that plays traditional Acadian music.The members of the group are:*Albert Arsenault - fiddle, percussion, bass, vocals*Hélène Bergeron - keyboard, guitar, fiddle, vocals...

, Allan Rankin, Perry Williams, Brad Fremlin, Timothy Chaisson

Timothy Chaisson

Timothy Chaisson, born 1986, is a Canadian singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, from Prince Edward Island. He is a member of the Chaisson Family, prominent in the music of Prince Edward Island. Chaisson started his professional music career at 14, joining his older brothers and cousins in...

 and songwriter Gene MacLellan

Gene MacLellan

Gene MacLellan was a Canadian singer-songwriter from Prince Edward Island.Among his notable compositions were "Snowbird", made famous by Anne Murray, "Put Your Hand in the Hand, "The Call", "Pages of Time" and "Thorn in My Shoe"...

. On February 23, 2003, Angèle Arsenault

Angèle Arsenault

Angèle Arsenault, is an acclaimed Canadian-Acadian singer, songwriter and media host.- Early life :Arsenault was born to Acadian parents in Abrams Village, Prince Edward Island, Canada in 1943. She was the eighth child out of fourteen children. She grew up surrounded by music because this medium...

 received the Order of Canada for her music and contribution to PEI culture.

Today, such bands as Two Hours Traffic

Two Hours Traffic

Two Hours Traffic is a Canadian indie rock band, based in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. They are named after a line in the prologue to Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Although often described as the band that Halifax guitarist Joel Plaskett took "under his wing", they have increasingly...

, Boxer the Horse

Boxer the Horse

Boxer the Horse is an indie rock band from Prince Edward Island, Canada. Their debut album Would You Please was released in 2010 to high critical acclaim with many reviews comparing the band's sound to Pavement and the Kinks...

, The Sidewalks, Haunted Hearts, The Danks, English Words, Racoon Bandit, The North Lakes, Milks & Rectangles and Paper Lions are successful on the PEI rock/pop music scene.

Charlottetown

Charlottetown

Charlottetown

Charlottetown is a Canadian city. It is both the largest city on and the provincial capital of Prince Edward Island, and the county seat of Queens County. Named after Queen Charlotte, the wife of George III, Charlottetown was first incorporated as a town in 1855 and designated as a city in 1885...

 is the capital and largest city on the island. Its documented music history begins in the 19th century, with religious music, some written by local pump and block maker, and organ-importer, Watson Duchemin. Several big bands including the Sons of Temperance Band and the Charlottetown Brass Band, were active.

By the end of the century, Charlottetown had its own opera house

Opera house

An opera house is a theatre building used for opera performances that consists of a stage, an orchestra pit, audience seating, and backstage facilities for costumes and set building...

, performing comic opera

Comic opera

Comic opera denotes a sung dramatic work of a light or comic nature, usually with a happy ending.Forms of comic opera first developed in late 17th-century Italy. By the 1730s, a new operatic genre, opera buffa, emerged as an alternative to opera seria...

s by Gilbert and Sullivan

Gilbert and Sullivan

Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the librettist W. S. Gilbert and the composer Arthur Sullivan . The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S...

.

The Prince Edward Island Music Festival was first held in 1946, inaugurated by the Women's Institute of Prince Edward Island. Fiddler Don Messer moved to Charlottetown in 1939 where he joined CFCY

CFCY-FM

CFCY-FM is a country music radio station in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, broadcasting at 95.1 FM. The station is owned by the Maritime Broadcasting System. It was first launched by radio pioneer Keith Rogers on August 15, 1924 as 10AS on 250 meters. In 1925, 10AS became CFCY and broadcast...

 as music director. He formed the "Islanders" and by 1944 the group was airing a show nationally on CBC Radio

CBC Radio

CBC Radio generally refers to the English-language radio operations of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The CBC operates a number of radio networks serving different audiences and programming niches, all of which are outlined below.-English:CBC Radio operates three English language...

, becoming established as the most popular on Canadian radio from the 1940s to the 1960s and later on television.

The Prince Edward Island Symphony Orchestra is also well-known. Other well-known famous performers from Charlottetown have included Haywire, Teresa Doyle, Tara MacLean

Tara MacLean

Tara MacLean is a Canadian singer and songwriter...

, Nancy White

Nancy White

Nancy White is a Canadian singer-songwriter, whose topical songs were a regular feature on CBC Radio from 1976 to 1994 on the public affairs show Sunday Morning...

, Walter MacNutt

Walter MacNutt

Walter Louis MacNutt was a Canadian organist, choir director, and composer. His compositional output includes numerous choral works, songs, pieces for solo organ, and works for orchestra; many of which have been published by companies like Broadcast Music Incorporated, Frederick Harris Music, the...

, UIGG, William Keith Rogers and ECMA winners The Saddle River Stringband.