Donegal Fiddlers Concert

Aoibhín O’Dea is a young fiddle player and singer from Gaoth Dobhair. She learned her music from local musicians and singers, performing from a young age with highly accomplished traditional ensemble An Crann Óg, under the guidance of Caitlín Joe Jack Uí Dhuibhir.

Conor Caldwell is a fiddle player from Belfast who is currently Course Director for the MA in Irish Traditional Music Performance at the Irish World Academy in the University of Limerick. His collaboration with fellow fiddler Danny Diamond, North, was described as a ‘long-playing delight’ by Siobhán Long in The Irish Times.

Conor’s latest release, Oh Listen To The Band, is an exploration of the influence of the emerging jazz idioms of the 1920s on Irish traditional music of the time. The recording features archival material from legendary performers such as John Doherty, Josie McDermott and Con Cassidy, which he has re-imagined with contemporary traditional and jazz musicians.

Bruce MacGregor, a native of Inverness, is a pupil of the legendary fiddle teacher Donald Riddell MBE. He formed the multi-award winning Highland fiddle super group Blazin’ Fiddles in 1998. Still going strong, they were voted Best Folk Band at the Scots Trad Music Awards last year.

Bruce also composes music for theatre, film, television and, latterly, for computer games, including the hit computer game, Assassin’s Creed III, which will doubtless attract a whole new audience to this year’s Glenties Fiddlers Gathering!