Zoë Conway is an Irish violinist, trained in both

classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical music" also ...

and traditional

fiddle A fiddle is a bowed string musical instrument, most often a violin. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including classical music. Although in many cases violins and fiddles are essentially synonymous, th ...

-playing. She is married to fellow

Irish traditional music Irish traditional music (also known as Irish trad, Irish folk music, and other variants) is a genre of folk music that developed in Ireland. In ''A History of Irish Music'' (1905), W. H. Grattan Flood wrote that, in Gaelic Ireland, there w ...

ian John McIntyre.

Early life

Born in

Dundalk Dundalk ( ; ga, Dún Dealgan ), meaning "the fort of Dealgan", is the county town (the administrative centre) of County Louth, Ireland. The town is on the Castletown River, which flows into Dundalk Bay on the east coast of Ireland. It is h ...

in 1981, attended St Louis Secondary School, Dundalk, where she served as the leader of the

Cross Border Orchestra of Ireland The Cross Border Orchestra of Ireland (CBOI) is one of Ireland, Ireland's primary youth orchestras. Based at the Dundalk Institute of Technology in County Louth, the CBOI maintains a membership of 160 young musicians between the ages of 12 and 24 ...

. She received a Diploma in Music Theory from the Dublin Conservatory of Music and Drama and Performance Diploma in 2003 from the ABSRM.

Career

She has performed with the RTE Concert Orchestra, the

Irish Chamber Orchestra The Irish Chamber Orchestra (ICO) is an Irish classical music ensemble, administratively based at the University of Limerick. János Fürst founded the ICO in 1963. The ICO consisted only of strings as its regular ensemble for many years, adding wi ...

and as a member of

Bill Whelan Bill Whelan (born 22 May 1950 in Limerick, Ireland) is an Irish composer and musician. He is best known for composing a piece for the interval of the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest. The result, ''Riverdance'', was a seven-minute display of tradi ...

's "

Riverdance ''Riverdance'' is a theatrical show that consists mainly of traditional Irish music and dance. With a score composed by Bill Whelan, it originated as an interval act during the Eurovision Song Contest 1994, featuring Irish dancing champions Jean ...

". Alongside traditional musicians

Donal Lunny Donald is a masculine given name derived from the Gaelic name ''Dòmhnall''.. This comes from the Proto-Celtic *''Dumno-ualos'' ("world-ruler" or "world-wielder"). The final -''d'' in ''Donald'' is partly derived from a misinterpretation of the ...

and Mairtin O'Connor, she is a member of the group ZoDoMo. Conway has released 2 solo albums and 2 albums with her husband John with whom she also organises the Féile na Tána traditional music festival. In 2019 she was awarded the Best Folk Instrumentalist prize at the RTÉ Radio 1 Folk Awards.

Discography

* ''Zoë Conway'' (2002) * ''The Horses Tail'' (2006) * ''Go Mairir I Bhfad'' (2012) * ''Zoë Conway and John McIntyre Live In Concert'' (2017)

References

External links

*
Irish Times
coverage of Conway {{DEFAULTSORT:Conway, Zoë Irish classical violinists Irish fiddlers Living people People from Dundalk 1981 births