Fiddle / Concertina / Voice
Niamh Ní Charra hails from Killarney, County Kerry in the south west of Ireland. Strongly influenced by a wealth of local Sliabh Luachra musicians, she started playing music at the early age of 4. A multi award-winner on both fiddle and concertina, she toured from 1998 to 2006 as a soloist with Riverdance, before returning to Ireland where she is now based. Her recently released 5th album “Donnelly’s Arm”, recorded under challenging circumstances during the Covid_19 pandemic and several lockdowns, has none-the-less received much critical and public acclaim. It was crowned Number 1 Trad Album of 2021 by Alex Monaghan, reviewer for several publications including Irish Music Magazine, Living Tradition and FolkWorld.
Along with touring extensively as a solo artist and with her own band, Niamh has also performed and recorded with The Chieftains, with Galician piper and Sony artist Carlos Núñez and in 2011 released an album “The Basque Irish Connection”, in collaboration with Basque musician Ibon Koteron. She regularly gives workshops and masterclasses, has performed for several presidents and members of royalty and has additionally coordinated concerts hosted by Irish embassies abroad, on behalf of the Irish government. Her music featured on the programme “Ireland in Song” which aired on Aer Lingus transatlantic flights, and which also featured on PBS and a selection of her compositions featured in the Irish Traditional Music Archive (ITMA)’s Saothar series in July 2022.
Niamh is also a professional archivist and is currently project manager and archivist for the Conradh na Gaeilge (The Gaelic League) and Mary Robinson collections in the University of Galway. She is the Communications and Campaigns officer for the Archives and Records Association, Ireland, she is co-host of the podcast series Archive Nation, and regularly gives presentations on her work in this field, including recently at both Electric Picnic and at the International Council on Archives (ICA) conference in Rome. Her work in both the music and archive professions was recently recognised when she was elected onto the ITMA’s board of Directors.