Winifred Horan

Winifred Horan is an American violinist/fiddler of Irish descent. After classical training, she played with the all-female Celtic music ensemble Cherish the Ladies before becoming an original member of the Irish traditional music group Solas.

Biography Horan was born in New York City to Irish parents and studied piano (taught by her father, a carpenter and musician) and Irish fiddle playing at a young age. She attended and graduated from the New England Conservatory in Boston, Massachusetts, where she studied classical violin, and the Aspen Music Festival and School in Aspen, Colorado. Solas in 1994, and is on fiddle and backing vocals. On her participation in Solas and, in particular, touring with the group, Horan expressed in a 2008 interview: "Traveling the world with Solas has been one of the best things about being in the band." having won an All-Ireland Junior Championship at age eleven. In 2006, she and fellow Solas member Mick McAuley, an accordionist, released Serenade on Compass Records, with covers of "After the Gold Rush" by Neil Young and "Make You Feel My Love" by Bob Dylan. Siobhán Long, writing for The Irish Times, listed Serenade as fifth on her list of top five Irish traditional music albums released in 2006. which was featured during the third season of the American reality television competitive dance series So You Think You Can Dance.

By 2024, Horan was performing with Reverie Road, a Celtic/Irish folk ensemble with fellow Solas co-founder John Williams, former Gaelic Storm fiddler Katie Grennan, and pianist Utsav Lal.

Selected discography with Cherish The Ladies 1992 – The Back Door 1993 – Out And About 1998 – One and All: The Best of Cherish the Ladies

with Solas 1996 — Solas 1997 — Sunny Spells and Scattered Showers 1998 — The Words That Remain 2000 — The Hour Before Dawn 2002 — The Edge of Silence 2003 — Another Day 2005 — Waiting for an Echo 2006 — Reunion: A Decade of Solas – CD and DVD 2008 — For Love and Laughter 2010 — The Turning Tide 2013 — Shamrock City

Solo and other selected albums 1996 — The Irish Isle: Traditional Irish Music (James Keane with Winifred, Seamus Egan, Sue Richards) 2002 — Just One Wish 2002 — Pleasures Of Home (Cracker Barrel label) 2006 — Serenade (with Mick McAuley) 2014 — Lost Girl Found 2019 — The Memory of Magic 2024 — Reverie Road (with John Williams, Katie Grennan, and Ustav Lal)