Liz Carroll

Liz Carroll (born September 19, 1956) is an American fiddler and composer. She is a recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts' National Heritage Fellowship Award. Carroll and collaborator Irish guitarist John Doyle were nominated for a Grammy Award in 2010. She is considered one of the greatest contemporary Irish fiddlers.

Early life and education

Carroll's parents were born in Ireland; her father Kevin was from Brocca, County Offaly, and her mother Eileen was from Ballyhahill, West Limerick. and raised on Chicago's south side. She took classical music lessons from nuns at Visitation Catholic School. Carroll's influences include Chicago-born Irish fiddler John McGreevy, Irish button accordionist Joe Cooley, Irish fiddler Sean McGuire, In 1987 she was asked to join the debut tour of the all-female Irish American ensemble Cherish the Ladies, but declined for family reasons.

Carroll's second, eponymous solo album was released in 1988, and featured accompaniment by Irish guitarist Dáithí Sproule. In 1992, Carroll, Sproule, and Irish-American button accordionist Billy McComiskey formed Trian and recorded two albums.

In 2000 she performed with Don Henley of the Eagles in his encore, which included an Irish song, for fourteen U.S. concert dates. On Saint Patrick's Day 2009 Carroll and Doyle played at the White House for President Barack Obama. The Scotsman, a compact newspaper in Edinburgh, remarked on a 2011 Carroll and Doyle performance in the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall:

... Carroll's full-grained, sweet yet sinewy tone and richly lyrical phrasing subtly underscored by Doyle's less-is-more finesse ... Her exceptional playing was distinguished by its muscular, supple lift and swing, immaculately applied ornamentation and fiery attack ...

Composer

Carroll composed her first reel at age nine, and had composed one hundred and seventy tunes by 2000.

Carroll is "recognized as a gifted composer of tunes in the Irish idiom," according to the Irish Echo. Carroll "has composed more than a dozen tunes that have become beloved standards among her peers," according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.

She composed the music for The Mai, a play by Irish playwright Marina Carr that opened at the Irish Repertory Theatre in New York in 1994. Her compositions have been choreographed by Irish dance companies including the Dennehy School of Irish Dancing

Honors

In 1994, Carroll received a National Heritage Fellowship, a lifetime honor presented to master folk and traditional artists by the National Endowment for the Arts.

At Chicago's Celtic Fest, Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley declared September 18, 1999, Liz Carroll Day in Chicago.

In 2010, Double Play, Carroll's recording with John Doyle on Compass Records was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Traditional World Music Album, making Carroll the first American-born traditional Irish musician to be nominated for a Grammy. In 2011, she was the recipient of the Gradam Ceoil TG4 Cumadóir award, Ireland's most significant traditional music prize for composition. She was the first American-born composer honored with the award. In 2015 Carroll said the 2011 composer's award and the 2010 Grammy nomination were the honors of which she was most proud.

Discography 1978 – Kiss Me Kate (with Tommy Maguire and Jerry Wallace) (Shanachie Records) 1979 – A Friend Indeed (with Marty Fahey) (solo album #1 - reissued 1995) (Shanachie Records) 1988 – Liz Carroll (solo album #2 - reissued 1993) (Green Linnet Records) 1992 – Trian (with Trian) (Flying Fish Records) 1995 – Trian II (with Trian) (Green Linnet Records) 2000 – Lost in The Loop (solo album #3) (Green Linnet Records) 2002 – Lake Effect (solo album #4) (Green Linnet Records) 2005 – In Play (with John Doyle) (Compass Records) 2007 – Live (with String Sisters) (Compass Records) 2009 – Double Play (with John Doyle) (Compass Records) (Grammy nominee) 2013 – On the Offbeat (solo album #5) (self-released) 2015 – Ireland, Crossroads of Art and Design, 1690-1840: The Music (co-produced with Liz Knowles) (The Art Institute of Chicago, for the exhibition of the same name) 2018 – Between Wind and Water (with String Sisters) (self released) 2019 – Half Day Road (with Jake Charron)

Published works