Liz Carroll was born in Chicago of Irish parents and grew up with Irish music all around her. Her father, Kevin Carroll, had arrived in Chicago in 1951 from Offaly County, Ireland, with a button box accordion. Liz followed suit and started playing accordion at age 5. Following in the tradition of her maternal grandfather,however, young Liz moved on to fiddle at age 9 and emerged as a major talent on the instrument by the time she was a teenager. In 1974, Carroll had won the Junior All-Ireland Fiddle Champion and a year later won the All-Ireland Senior Fiddle Champion as well. What’s more, that same year she also captured the All-Ireland Senior Duet Champion, with Jimmy Keane.
Liz Carroll has toured as a solo artist, as part of the duo Liz Carroll & John Doyle. and with groups like the Greenfields of America, Trian, and String Sisters. She’s released eleven albums and has appeared on many more. In 1994, Liz was a recipient of the prestigious National Heritage Fellowship Award. She became the first Irish-American musician nominated for a Grammy in 2010. In 2011 she became the first American-born composer honored with the Cumadóir TG4, Ireland’s most significant traditional music prize. Liz Carroll’s talent as a fiddler can be heard on Folksongs of Illinois, vol. 2: Fiddlers (2007).
