Liz Carroll

{{short description|American fiddler and composer}} {{For|the foster mother suspected of murder|Marcus Fiesel}} {{Use mdy dates|date=April 2014}} {{Infobox musical artist  | name = Liz Carroll | image = LizCarrollDublin2011.jpg | caption = Carroll at the Dublin (Ohio) Irish Festival, August 2011 | image_size = | background = non_vocal_instrumentalist | birth_date = September 19, 1956 | birth_place = Chicago, Illinois, U.S. | death_date = | instrument = Fiddle | genre = Folk music Celtic Irish traditional | occupation = Musician, music teacher | years_active = 1974 – Present | label = Compass Shanachie Flying Fish Green Linnet | associated_acts = String Sisters Green Fields of America Trian John Doyle Daithí Sproule | website = [http://www.lizcarroll.com Official website] | current_members = | past_members = }} '''Liz Carroll''' (born September 19, 1956) is an 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.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://thesession.org/discussions/23721|title=Liz Carroll & John Doyle Grammy nomination on The Session|website=thesession.org|date=February 2010 |language=en|access-date=2019-07-17}}</ref> She is considered one of the greatest contemporary Irish fiddlers.<ref name=trib19940311>{{cite news |title=Irish Music Has A Sweet Home In Chicago |date=March 11, 1994 |first=June |last=Sawyers |newspaper=Chicago Tribune |access-date=September 13, 2015 |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1994/03/11/irish-music-has-a-sweet-home-in-chicago/}}</ref>

==Early life and education==

Carroll's parents were born in Ireland; her father Kevin was from Brocca, County Offaly, and her mother Eileen<ref name="Govenar">{{cite book |last=Govenar |first=Alan |year=2001 |chapter=Liz Carroll: Irish American Fiddler|title=Masters of Traditional Arts: A Biographical Dictionary |volume=1 (A-J)|location=Santa Barbara, CA |publisher=ABC-Clio |pages=107–108|isbn=1576072401|oclc=47644303}}</ref> was from Ballyhahill, West Limerick.<ref name=ie200102/> Her maternal grandfather played the violin<ref name=nea/> and her father played button accordion.<ref name=nea/> Carroll was born September 19, 1956, in Chicago, Illinois<ref name=nea>{{cite web|url=http://arts.gov/honors/heritage/liz-carroll|title=Liz Carroll: Irish-American Fiddler |author= |date=n.d. |website=www.arts.gov |publisher=National Endowment for the Arts |access-date=December 15, 2020}}</ref> and raised on Chicago's south side. She took classical music lessons from nuns at Visitation Catholic School.<ref name=trib19940311/><ref name=nea/> On Sunday nights, Carroll and her family visited a south side Irish pub that hosted a live radio show featuring traditional Irish music. She earned a degree in social psychology at DePaul University.<ref name=Weigel>{{cite news |newspaper=Chicago Tribune |accessdate=March 25, 2015 |url=http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/ct-remarkable-liz-carroll-0315-20150309-story.html |date=March 15, 2015 |title=Fiddler, composer Liz Carroll on the life she has woven around Irish music |first=Jenniffer |last=Weigel}}</ref> Carroll's influences include Chicago-born Irish fiddler John McGreevy, Irish button accordionist Joe Cooley, Irish fiddler Sean McGuire,<ref name=trib19940311/> 1983 National Heritage Award-winning uilleann piper Joe Shannon, and pianist Eleanor Neary.<ref name=nea/>

==Competition achievement==

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.<ref name=limelight/> Carroll returned the following year and won first place in the category. In the succeeding year, 1975, at age 18, she won the All-Ireland Senior Fiddle Championship, at the time only the second American to have done so.<ref name=nea/><ref name=mtv20000502/> 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.<ref name=nea/>

==Recordings and performances==

[[File:Liz Carroll w John Doyle @ Club Passim (686699652).jpg|thumb|Carroll and John Doyle at Club Passim in Cambridge, Massachusetts on June 21, 2007]]

In 1977, Carroll and button accordionist Tommy Maguire released the album ''Kiss Me Kate''. The following year, Carroll recorded her first solo album ''A Friend Indeed'', accompanied on piano by Marty Fahey, featuring five of her compositions.<ref name=mtv20000502/>

In the early 1980s, Carroll toured with Green Fields of America, the Irish traditional music ensemble led by Irish musician and folklorist Mick Moloney.<ref name=limelight>{{cite news |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/2000/04/28/chicagos-gifted-irish-musician-is-back-in-the-limelight/ |newspaper=Chicago Tribune |title=Chicago's Gifted Irish Musician Is Back In The Limelight |date=April 28, 2000 |first=Michael |last=Parrish |access-date=April 25, 2015}}</ref> In 1987 she was asked to join the debut tour of the all-female Irish American ensemble Cherish the Ladies, but declined for family reasons.<ref>{{cite news |title=Budding Legend Celtic Fiddler Liz Carroll's Fame Spreads Far Beyond her Chicago Base |last=Alarik |first=Scott |newspaper=Boston Globe |date=March 10, 2000 }}</ref>

Carroll's second, eponymous solo album was released in 1988, and featured accompaniment by Irish guitarist Dáithí Sproule. In 1992, Carroll, Sproule, and Irish-American button accordionist Billy McComiskey formed Trian and recorded two albums.

In 2000 she performed with Don Henley of the Eagles in his encore, which included an Irish song, for fourteen U.S. concert dates.<ref name=tribune20010110/>

''Lost in the Loop'' (2000), Carroll's first solo album in over a decade, featured thirteen original compositions and was produced by Séamus Egan of Solas.<ref name=mtv20000502/> Irish traditional music critic Earle Hitchner of MTV wrote of the track ''The Silver Spear/The Earl's Chair/The Musical Priest'':

<blockquote>Carroll's febrile bowing is breathtaking, a model of rolls and triplets executed in fleet, articulate clusters. She sounds almost possessed, yet not once does she lose sight of those traditional reels' melodies in one of the more exhilarating Irish fiddle tracks ever recorded.<ref name=mtv20000502/></blockquote>

In the 2000s, Carroll recorded three albums accompanied by Irish guitarist John Doyle, entitled ''Lake Effect'', ''In Play'' and ''Double Play''. A 2005 Carroll and Doyle concert at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., and an interview was collected by the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://lccn.loc.gov/2007700211 |publisher=Library of Congress |title=Liz Carroll with John Doyle concert and interview collection |date=April 21, 2005 |accessdate=September 12, 2015}}</ref> On Saint Patrick's Day 2009 Carroll and Doyle played at the White House for President Barack Obama.<ref>{{cite web |work=Art Works Blog |publisher=National Endowment for the Arts |date=March 15, 2012 |first=Josephine |last=Reed |title=Art Works Podcast: Liz Carroll |url=https://www.arts.gov/art-works/2012/art-works-podcast-liz-carroll |accessdate=April 18, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite AV media |title=Liz Carroll and John Doyle performing for President Obama - St. Patrick's Day 2009 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPoIosUBr9Y |publisher=Compass Records |accessdate=April 18, 2017 |date=June 23, 2009 |location=Washington, D.C. |medium=YouTube}}</ref> ''The Scotsman'', a compact newspaper in Edinburgh, remarked on a 2011 Carroll and Doyle performance in the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall:

<blockquote>... Carroll's full-grained, sweet yet sinewy tone and richly lyrical phrasing subtly underscored by Doyle's less-is-more finesse ... Her exceptional playing was distinguished by its muscular, supple lift and swing, immaculately applied ornamentation and fiery attack ...<ref name=scotsman/></blockquote>

Carroll is one of the String Sisters and performs on their live album and DVD titled ''Live'' which was recorded in 2005 and released in 2007.<ref name=ie20080217>{{cite news |newspaper=Irish Echo |url=https://irishecho.com/2011/02/its-a-string-thing-with-these-sisters-2/ |title=It's a string thing with these 'sisters' |first=Earle |last=Hitchner |date=February 17, 2008 |accessdate=March 25, 2015}}</ref>

==Composer==

Carroll composed her first reel at age nine, and had composed one hundred and seventy tunes by 2000.<ref name=mtv20000502/> In August 2010, two hundred of her compositions, recorded and unrecorded, were published as ''Collected: Original Irish Tunes''. The ''Irish Echo'', a weekly newspaper based in New York City, named ''Collected'' the best collection of tunes in 2010.<ref>{{cite news |newspaper=Irish Echo |url=http://irishecho.com/2011/01/joe-derrane-is-the-irish-echo%E2%80%99s-top-traditional-artist-of-2010/ |title=Joe Derrane is the Irish Echo's top traditional artist of 2010 |first=Earle |last=Hitchner |date=January 19, 2011 |accessdate=March 25, 2015}}</ref>

Carroll is "recognized as a gifted composer of tunes in the Irish idiom," according to the ''Irish Echo''.<ref name=ie20080217/> Her compositions are in the performance and recorded repertoires of other musicians.<ref name= ie200102/> "Many of her tunes have become modern standards," according to ''The Scotsman''.<ref name=scotsman>{{cite news |title=Liz Carroll and Friends and Mairearad and Anna, Glasgow royal Concert |newspaper=The Scotsman |date=January 18, 2011 |accessdate=March 25, 2015 |url=http://www.scotsman.com/news/gig-review-liz-carroll-amp-friends-and-mairearad-amp-anna-1-1497342}}</ref> Carroll "has composed more than a dozen tunes that have become beloved standards among her peers," according to the ''San Diego Union-Tribune''.<ref>{{cite news |title=The Reel Thing: Celtic whirlwind Liz Carroll's blown past the traditional repertory |last=Gilbert |first=Andrew |newspaper=The San Diego Union-Tribune |location=San Diego, California |date=November 16, 2006 }}</ref>

She composed the music for ''The Mai'', a play by Irish playwright Marina Carr that opened at the Irish Repertory Theatre in New York in 1994.<ref name=limelight/> In 2001 Carroll collaborated with Irish-American author Frank McCourt on staged readings from his works, a production developed by the Steppenwolf Theater Company in Chicago.<ref name=tribune20010110>{{cite news |title=Irish Fiddler Strikes A Harmonious Chord With Author Of 'Angela's Ashes' |date=January 10, 2001 |first=Anne |last=Stein |access-date=March 25, 2015 |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/2001/01/10/irish-fiddler-strikes-a-harmonious-chord-with-author-of-angelas-ashes/ |newspaper=Chicago Tribune}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Frank McCourt and Liz Carroll at Steppenwolf Theatre |newspaper=Chicago Sun-Times |date=January 10, 2001 |first=Mary |last=Houlihan}}</ref> Her compositions have been choreographed by Irish dance companies including the Dennehy School of Irish Dancing<ref name=nea/> and Trinity Irish Dance.<ref name=mtv20000502>{{cite news |title=New Liz Carroll Album Throws Listeners For A Loop; Chicago Irish fiddler hits road to promote first solo CD in 12 years |first=Earle |last=Hitchner |date=May 2, 2000 |accessdate=September 11, 2015 |publisher=MTV |url=http://www.mtv.com/news/871456/new-liz-carroll-album-throws-listeners-for-a-loop/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170420045740/http://www.mtv.com/news/871456/new-liz-carroll-album-throws-listeners-for-a-loop/|url-status=dead|archive-date=April 20, 2017}}</ref>

==Honors==

In 1994, Carroll received a National Heritage Fellowship, a lifetime honor presented to master folk and traditional artists by the National Endowment for the Arts.<ref name=ie200102/><ref name=nea/><ref>{{cite news |title=Chicagoan Liz Carroll a National Heritage Fellow |newspaper=Chicago Tribune |date=June 8, 1994}}</ref>

At Chicago's Celtic Fest, Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley declared September 18, 1999, Liz Carroll Day in Chicago.<ref name=limelight/>

The ''Irish Echo'' named her traditional musician of the year in 2000, saying: "Carroll has enriched and extended the Irish tradition in music through performing, composing, and teaching."<ref name=ie200102>{{cite news |first=Earle |last=Hitchner |newspaper=Irish Echo |accessdate=March 25, 2015 |title=Carroll is Echo's top trad musician |url=https://irishecho.com/2011/02/carroll-is-echos-top-trad-musician-2/ |date=February 16, 2001}}</ref>

In 2010, ''Double Play'', Carroll's recording with John Doyle on Compass Records was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Traditional World Music Album,<ref>{{cite news |newspaper=Irish Echo |url=https://irishecho.com/2011/02/carroll-and-doyle-get-grammy-nod-2/ |title=Carroll and Doyle get Grammy nod |first=Earle |last=Hitchner |date=February 17, 2010 |accessdate=March 25, 2015}}</ref> making Carroll the first American-born traditional Irish musician to be nominated for a Grammy. In 2011, she was the recipient of the Gradam Ceoil TG4 Cumadóir award, Ireland's most significant traditional music prize for composition. She was the first American-born composer honored with the award.<ref>{{cite web |title=TG4 Composers Award |url=http://www.tg4.ie/en/programmes/gradam-ceoil/previous-winners/composer-of-the-year/ |accessdate=March 25, 2015 |publisher=TG4}}</ref> In 2015 Carroll said the 2011 composer's award and the 2010 Grammy nomination were the honors of which she was most proud.<ref name=Weigel/>

==Discography== * 1978 – ''Kiss Me Kate'' (with Tommy Maguire and Jerry Wallace) (Shanachie Records) * 1979 – ''A Friend Indeed'' (with Marty Fahey) (solo album #1 - reissued 1995) (Shanachie Records) * 1988 – ''Liz Carroll'' (solo album #2 - reissued 1993) (Green Linnet Records) * 1992 – ''Trian'' (with Trian) (Flying Fish Records) * 1995 – ''Trian II'' (with Trian) (Green Linnet Records) * 2000 – ''Lost in The Loop'' (solo album #3) (Green Linnet Records) * 2002 – ''Lake Effect'' (solo album #4) (Green Linnet Records) * 2005 – ''In Play'' (with John Doyle) (Compass Records) * 2007 – ''Live'' (with String Sisters) (Compass Records) * 2009 – ''Double Play'' (with John Doyle) (Compass Records) (Grammy nominee) * 2013 – ''On the Offbeat'' (solo album #5) (self-released) * 2015 – ''Ireland, Crossroads of Art and Design, 1690-1840: The Music'' (co-produced with Liz Knowles) (The Art Institute of Chicago, for the exhibition of the same name) * 2018 – ''Between Wind and Water'' (with String Sisters) (self released) *2019 – ''Half Day Road'' (with Jake Charron)

==Published works== * {{Cite book|last=Carroll |first=Liz |title=Collected: Original Irish Tunes |isbn=978-0-615-37814-5 |year=2010}}

==References== {{Reflist|30em}}

==External links== * {{Official website|http://www.lizcarroll.com/}} * {{AllMusic|artist/liz-carroll-mn0000268924}} * {{Discogs artist}} * {{ChicagoTribuneKeyword}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Carroll, Liz}} Category:1956 births Category:20th-century American fiddlers Category:21st-century American fiddlers Category:American people of Irish descent Category:Living people Category:Musicians from Chicago Category:National Heritage Fellowship winners Category:Compass Records artists Category:Shanachie Records artists Category:20th-century American musicians Category:DePaul University alumni Category:String Sisters members Category:American women violinists Category:Green Linnet Records artists Category:American women fiddlers Category:Irish traditional music composers