Cape Breton Island possesses one of the more vital but lesser-known traditions in the far-flung world of Celtic music. With the emergence of the beautiful, virtuosic fiddler Natalie MacMaster, the small Scottish-inflected communities off the coast of Canada’s far eastern province Nova Scotia have found a champion who is turning the Cape Breton sound into a recognized spot on the world music dial.

MacMaster returns to the Sunset Center on Wednesday for a Performance Carmel concert with her longtime band: Brad Davidge on guitar and vocals, John Chiasson on bass and vocals, Allan Dewar on keyboards, Matt MacIsaac on bagpipes and whistles, and percussionist Miche Pouliot. While the sextet is her primary creative vehicle, she has also gained widespread visibility through performances with Santana, Paul Simon and top-shelf symphony orchestras.

With her band, MacMaster commands the stage as a riveting performer who is known for throwing in a dexterous step-dance move. While her players are all steeped in Cape Breton’s jigs, reels, hornpipes and airs, MacMaster has been developing a repertoire of original material, tunes featured on her upcoming album Yours Truly.

“It’s a real expression of my musical taste,” says MacMaster, 33. “I’ve let my creative juices run free and wild, so the new music has a unique sound.”

MacMaster first gained fame for her mastery of the Cape Breton sound, which hearkens back to the music of the Scottish Highlands and Outer Hebrides brought to Canada by immigrants fleeing land enclosures and famine in the 18th and 19th centuries. After collecting a mantle full of East Coast Music Awards for her traditional albums, MacMaster started branching out, incorporating elements of jazz and Latin music.

She appears on two tracks on the first US release by Kiran Ahluwalia, the brilliant Indian-born, Toronto-based interpreter of Indo-Persian love songs known as ghazals. MacMaster’s 2002 album Blueprint was produced by fiddler Darol Anger and features instrumental stars such as Bela Fleck, Sam Bush and Edgar Meyer. For Anger, a pioneer of genre-crunching acoustic music, MacMaster is reaching a profound level of expression.

“When you get to the ultimate level of musicianship, it becomes impossible to separate the musician from the music,” Anger says. “Natalie is one of my favorite people, and in many ways the greatest of all fiddlers. She can make music sound dangerous or mesmerizing, deeply spiritual or like the funniest joke you ever heard.”

While MacMaster grew up in a musical family, she was inspired to pursue a life in music by the role traditional music and dance plays in Cape Breton. When the harsh weather breaks in the summer, the island comes alive.

“Every weekend a different community would be having a celebration, and they would always have a traditional Scottish concert relying on local talent,” MacMaster says.

With her husband, respected fiddler Donnell Leahy, MacMaster is bringing Cape Breton to the world through the Internet with “Cape Breton Live.” The weekly broadcast kicked off last September with a performance by MacMaster and her great uncle, the celebrated fiddler Buddy MacMaster.

“The big thing for me is to try to capture the culture, as opposed to just the music,” MacMaster says. “We want to share the spirit and the vibe, and what we’re about as a people.”

NATALIE MACMASTER plays 8pm Wednesday at the Sunset Center, San Carlos and Ninth, Carmel. $37-$47. 620-2048, sunsetcenter.org