Liz Carroll

Liz Carroll
Liz Carroll at the Dublin (Ohio) Irish Festival, August 2011; photograph by Cindy Funk
Background information
Born	September 19, 1956
Origin	Chicago, United States
Genres	Folk music Celtic Irish traditional
Occupation(s)	Musician, music teacher
Instruments	Fiddle
Years active	1974 – Present
Labels	Compass Records
Associated acts	String Sisters Green Fields of America Trian John Doyle Daithí Sproule
Website	Official website
Notable instruments
Fiddle

Liz Carroll (born September 19, 1956) is an Irish-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. Carroll is considered one of the greatest contemporary Irish fiddlers.

Carroll's parents were born in Ireland; her father from Brocca, County Offaly, and her mother from Ballyhahill, West Limerick. Carroll's maternal grandfather played the violin and her father played button accordion. Carroll was born September 19, 1956, in Chicago, Illinois and raised on Chicago's south side. On Sunday nights, Carroll and her family visited a south side Irish pub that hosted a live radio show featuring Irish traditional music. Carroll earned a degree in social psychology at DePaul University. Carroll's influences include Chicago-born Irish fiddler John McGreevy, Irish button accordionist Joe Cooley, Irish fiddler Sean McGuire, 1983 National Heritage Award-winning uilleann piper Joe Shannon, and pianist Eleanor Neary.

Carroll won second place in the All-Ireland under 18 fiddle championship at the 1973 Fleadh Cheoil, the Irish music competition run by Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann; Frankie Gavin won first. Carroll returned the next year and won first place in the category. The next year, 1975, at age 18, she won the All-Ireland Senior Fiddle Championship, at the time only the second American to have done so. That same year Carroll and Chicago piano accordionist Jimmy Keane won the senior duet championship. The championships brought recognition of Carroll as one of the most outstanding Irish fiddlers of all time.