LoReena McKennitt
The Mask and the Mirror Definitive Edition Box Set
OUT OCTOBER 9
CONTACT:
LYDIA KRUMPER // PUBLICIST
AVA KELLY // PUBLICIST
Loreena McKennitt’s eclectic Celtic blend of pop, folk and world music has resulted in sales of more than 16 million albums worldwide. Her recordings have achieved Gold, Platinum and multi-Platinum status in 15 countries over four continents. She is a two-time GRAMMY® Award nominee, a two-time JUNO Award winner, and a Billboard International Achievement Award winner. She has performed in some of the world’s most storied and historic concert venues, including Carnegie Hall in New York, the Royal Albert Hall in London, the Alhambra Palace in Granada, Spain, and the Acropolis in Athens, Greece. She has performed for dignitaries worldwide including the late Queen Elizabeth II, His Majesty King Charles III and other heads of state. Recent honours include promotion from Member of the Order of Canada (2004) to Officer of the Order of Canada (2026), promotion from Chevalier to Officier L’Ordre des Arts et Lettres in France (2026), and her inductions into the Canadian Songwriters’ Hall of Fame (2023) and Canadian Music Hall of Fame (2025).
From Ireland to France to Morocco, the Canadian singer-songwriter chases signals of poetry, religion, migration, and cultural exchange across centuries. “Following the history of the Celts and weaving that back into the music makes the recording the equivalent of travel writing,” McKennitt says, describing the philosophy that has guided her work. “My curiosity about the history of the Celts has never ceased, and as I learn the people listening get to learn too.” And in the hands of McKennitt, that musicological approach metamorphizes into the celestial beauty of albums like The Mask and Mirror—the beloved and critically acclaimed 1994 record now being released as a 30th anniversary reissue. And as the years have passed, the depth of the album has only expanded, a meditation on what is hidden and revealed behind the masks we wear and the common ground beneath vastly different cultures.
Looking back on the album, McKennitt returns to a speech from Shakespeare’s The Tempest. As the last track of The Mask and Mirror, Prospero’s question of whether there is something behind the masks we wear, or whether we might instead recognize ourselves in one another continues to strike a chord for McKennitt. “There are always masks, but behind them there are certain realities, certain commonalities,” she reflects. Three decades later, those commonalities have become part of the album’s legacy, a cultural crossroads that has allowed countless listeners to encounter places they may have never even imagined—and, perhaps more importantly, to encounter one another.
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