Kevin Burke (musician)
| Kevin Burke | |
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Kevin Burke, 2014
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| Background information | |
| Born | 1950 (age 66–67) London, England |
| Genres | Irish |
| Occupation(s) | Musician |
| Instruments | Fiddle |
| Years active | 1958–present |
| Associated acts | The Bothy Band, Mícheál Ó Domhnaill, Patrick Street, Open House, Celtic Fiddle Festival |
| Website | www |
Kevin Burke (born 1950) is an Irish master fiddler considered one of the finest living Irish fiddlers. For nearly four decades he has been at the forefront of Irish traditional music and Celtic music, performing and recording with the seminal groups The Bothy Band, Patrick Street, and the Celtic Fiddle Festival.
In addition to his solo albums, Burke has had successful project collaborations with Christy Moore, Andy Irvine & Paul Brady, Mícheál Ó Domhnaill, Jackie Daly, Ged Foley and Cal Scott.
In 2002, Burke was awarded a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, the highest honour given in the United States for folk and traditional music.
In 2016, Kevin Burke was named "Gradam Ceoil" (Musician of the Year) in the traditional-music awards presented by the Irish-language TV channel TG4.
Kevin Burke was born in 1950 in London, England to parents from County Sligo in Ireland. Inheriting a love of Irish music from his parents, he took up the fiddle at the age of eight, studied under Jessie Christopherson, and eventually acquired a virtuosic technique in the Sligo fiddling style. He traveled frequently to Ireland to visit relatives and immersed himself in the local Sligo music. By the age of thirteen, he was playing with Irish musical groups. He joined a céilí band, the Glenside, and played weekends at various Irish dance halls around London. In 1966, the Glenside performed at the céilí band competition at the All-Ireland Fleadh in Boyle in County Roscommon and won the competition.
In 1972, Burke met American singer-songwriter Arlo Guthrie in a pub in Milltown Malbay in County Clare. Impressed with Burke's fiddling, Guthrie invited him to Los Angeles to play on his album Last of the Brooklyn Cowboys (1973). Burke's exposure to the musicians he met in the United States—including accordionist Joe Burke and fiddler Andy McGann—inspired him to devote his life to playing music. In 1974, Burke moved to Dublin, where he teamed up with singer-songwriter Christy Moore, a former member of the Irish band Planxty. Together with Jimmy Faulkner and Declan McNelis, they played throughout Ireland for the next few years.
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