Betty Lou Beaton

Betty Lou Beaton began playing the piano at the age of five. Although she has a couple of years of piano training, all her Cape Breton piano playing is done by ear. At 14 years of age, she started playing dances with her brother Buddy MacMaster and has been accompanying fiddlers for dancers ever since.

Betty has taught at Colaisde na Gàidhlig / the Gaelic College in St. Ann’s and also at the Ceilidh Trail School of Music in Inverside Cape Breton, Fiddle Tunes in Port Townsend, Washington, USA, and Ceòlas in South Uist, Scotland. She has played on numerous recordings including the Smithsonian Folkways recording The Beaton Family of Mabou: Cape Breton Fiddle and Piano Music and, most recently, her daughter Andrea’s 2016 release Andrea Beaton with Betty and Dave.

Betty is most often paired with her husband, fiddler Kinnon Beaton, and the duo is always in demand to play for dances.