Máire Breatnach is one of the most prominent fiddle

Fiddle

The term fiddle may refer to any bowed string musical instrument, most often the violin. It is also a colloquial term for the instrument used by players in all genres, including classical music...

 players in Ireland. She also sings in Irish

Goidelic languages

The Goidelic languages or Gaelic languages are one of the two branches of the Insular Celtic languages, the other consisting of the Brythonic languages. Goidelic languages historically formed a dialect continuum stretching from the south of Ireland through the Isle of Man to the north of Scotland...

 on some of her albums. Since the early 1990s, she has had five solo albums, participated in many other albums (as listed on her website), with substantive contributions in some cases, and contributed to many music CDs, as well as material for children, mostly in Irish

Goidelic languages

The Goidelic languages or Gaelic languages are one of the two branches of the Insular Celtic languages, the other consisting of the Brythonic languages. Goidelic languages historically formed a dialect continuum stretching from the south of Ireland through the Isle of Man to the north of Scotland...

.

Early life

Born in Dublin, Máire Breatnach obtained a B.A., B.Mus. and M.A. degrees at UCD, in Dublin where she lectured, as she also did in the College of Music, DIT

Dublin Institute of Technology

Dublin Institute of Technology was established officially in 1992 under the but had been previously set up in 1978 on an ad-hoc basis. The institution can trace its origins back to 1887 with the establishment of various technical institutions in Dublin, Ireland...

 before starting a freelance career as a performing musician.
She later obtained a further M.A., in Ethnomusicology, from the University of Limerick

University of Limerick

The University of Limerick is a university in Ireland near the city of Limerick on the island's west coast. It was established in 1972 as the National Institute for Higher Education, Limerick and became a university by statute in 1989 in accordance with the University of Limerick Act 1989...

.

Career

Máire Breatnach is best known for her fiddle

Fiddle

The term fiddle may refer to any bowed string musical instrument, most often the violin. It is also a colloquial term for the instrument used by players in all genres, including classical music...

 playing, and has been a prolific solo player as well as participating in a number of traditional and neo-traditional groups.

She has worked with the Sharon Shannon

Sharon Shannon

Sharon Shannon is an Irish musician. She is best known for her work with the accordion and for her fiddle technique. She also plays the tin whistle and melodeon. Her 1991 album Sharon Shannon is the best selling album of traditional Irish music ever released there...

, Moya Brennan

Moya Brennan

Moya Brennan, born Máire Ní Bhraonáin , also known as Máire Brennan , is an Irish folk singer, songwriter, harpist, and philanthropist who began performing professionally in 1970, when her family formed the band Clannad, and is now widely considered as the "First Lady of Celtic Music"...

 and Mary Black

Mary Black

Mary Black is an Irish singer. She is well known as an interpreter of both folk and contemporary material which has made her a major recording artist in her native Ireland, and in many other parts of the world....

 bands, and features on albums by musicians as diverse as Dolores Keane

Dolores Keane

Dolores Keane is an Irish folk singer and occasional actress. She was a founding member of the successful group De Dannan, and has since embarked on a very successful solo career, establishing herself as one of the most loved interpreters of Irish song.-Background:Keane was born in a small village...

, Mike Oldfield

Mike Oldfield

Michael Gordon Oldfield is an English multi-instrumentalist musician and composer, working a style that blends progressive rock, folk, ethnic or world music, classical music, electronic music, New Age, and more recently, dance. His music is often elaborate and complex in nature...

, Alan Stivell

Alan Stivell

Alan Stivell is a Breton musician and singer, recording artist and master of the celtic harp who from the early 1970s revived global interest in the Celtic harp and Celtic music as part of world music.- Background: learning Breton music and culture :Alan was born in the Auvergnat town of Riom...

, Bryan Adams

Bryan Adams

Bryan Adams, is a Canadian rock singer-songwriter, guitarist, bassist, producer, actor and photographer. Adams has won dozens of awards and nominations, including 20 Juno Awards among 56 nominations. He has also received 15 Grammy Award nominations including a win for Best Song Written...

, Anúna

Anúna

Anúna is an Irish choral group. In 1987 Dublin composer Michael McGlynn founded An Uaithne, a name which describes the three ancient types of Celtic music, Suantraí , Geantraí and Goltraí . One of the group's stated aims is to explore and redefine this music...

, Matthias Kießling, Dónal Lunny

Dónal Lunny

Dónal Lunny is an Irish folk musician. Lunny has been at the forefront of the evolution of traditional Irish music for more than thirty-five years and has participated within the renaissance of traditional Irish music in that time period...

, Brian Kennedy

Brian Kennedy (singer)

Brian Edward Patrick Kennedy is an Irish singer-songwriter and author, known for his ballads, and has represented Ireland at Eurovision 2006. He is the younger brother of musician Bap Kennedy.-Personal life:...

, Ronan Keating

Ronan Keating

Ronan Patrick John Keating is an Irish recording artist, singer-songwriter, musician, and philanthropist. Keating debuted on the professional music scene alongside Keith Duffy, Mikey Graham, Shane Lynch and Stephen Gately, in 1994 as the lead singer of Boyzone. His solo career started in 1999, and...

, John Renbourn

John Renbourn

John Renbourn is an English guitarist and songwriter. He is possibly best known for his collaboration with guitarist Bert Jansch as well as his work with the folk group Pentangle, although he maintained a solo career before, during and after that band's existence .While most commonly labelled a...

 and The Chieftains

The Chieftains

The Chieftains are a Grammy-winning Irish musical group founded in 1962, best known for being one of the first bands to make Irish traditional music popular around the world.-Name:...

. She sings in Irish

Goidelic languages

The Goidelic languages or Gaelic languages are one of the two branches of the Insular Celtic languages, the other consisting of the Brythonic languages. Goidelic languages historically formed a dialect continuum stretching from the south of Ireland through the Isle of Man to the north of Scotland...

 on some of her albums, and her composition Éist was an award-winning single.

Her TV and film credits include Glenroe

Glenroe

Glenroe was an Irish television drama series broadcast between September 1983 and May 2001 on RTÉ One. The programme was a spin-off from Bracken, a short-lived RTÉ drama itself spun off from The Riordans. Glenroe was broadcast on Sunday nights at 20.30, generally from September to May. The show was...

, Tinteán, and Voyage

Voyage

- In music: :* Voyage * Voyage * Voyage , by In Fear and Faith* Voyage , by Ayumi Hamasaki* Voyage , a disco music group** Voyage, an album by the eponymous band...

(RTÉ

RTE

RTÉ is the abbreviation for Raidió Teilifís Éireann, the public broadcasting service of the Republic of Ireland.RTE may also refer to:* Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, 25th Prime Minister of Turkey...

), A Freezing Summer (Japan), Angela Mooney Dies Again, In The Name of the Father

In the Name of the Father

In the Name of the Father is a 1993 biographical film directed by Jim Sheridan. It is based on the true life story of the Guildford Four, four people falsely convicted of the IRA's Guildford pub bombings which killed four off-duty British soldiers and a civilian...

, The Secret of Roan Inish

The Secret of Roan Inish

The Secret of Roan Inish is an American independent film written and directed by John Sayles, and released in 1994. It's based on the novel The Secret of Ron Mor Skerry, by Rosalie K. Fry....

, Rob Roy

Rob Roy (film)

Rob Roy is a 1995 historical drama film directed by Michael Caton-Jones. Liam Neeson stars as Robert Roy MacGregor, an 18th century Scottish historical figure who battles with feudal landowners in the Scottish Highlands. Jessica Lange, John Hurt, Tim Roth, Eric Stoltz, and Jason Flemyng also star...

 and Moondance

Moondance

Moondance is the third solo album by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison. It was released on Warner Bros. Records on 28 February 1970 and peaked at #29 on Billboard's Pop Albums chart....

.

She also worked on the Celtic arrangement album Final Fantasy IV: Celtic Moon, and with Yasunori Mitsuda

Yasunori Mitsuda

is a Japanese video game composer, sound programmer, and musician. He has composed music for or worked on over 35 games, and has contributed to over 15 other albums...

 on the arranged soundtrack to Xenogears

Xenogears

is a science-fiction console role-playing game developed and published by Square for Sony's PlayStation. It was released on February 11, 1998 in Japan and on October 20, 1998 in North America. The game was never released in PAL territories...

, titled Creid

CREID

Creid is the arranged soundtrack to Square's console role-playing game Xenogears. It was written by the game's composer Yasunori Mitsuda and performed by a musical ensemble dubbed Millennial Fair. It was released on April 22, 1998 in Japan by DigiCube, and re-released by Square Enix on June 29, 2005...

, as well as featuring on albums by Chiaki Ishikawa

Chiaki Ishikawa

is a Japanese singer/songwriter. She is also the lead vocalist of Japanese musical duo See-Saw. Many of her songs, both solo and with See-Saw, have been used as theme songs in various anime series. Since 2003, her popularity abroad as part of See-Saw and as a solo artist has risen significantly...

 and Mimori Yusa

Mimori Yusa

, , is a Japanese singer-songwriter. Although she has had a very prolific career, Yusa achieved only minor popularity in Japan until very recently when her song newest song, "Kuro", was featured on the popular NHK television program Minna no Uta from December 2005 until January 2006...

.

Her collaboration with Thomas Loefke and Norland Wind is recorded on the CDs "Norland Wind", "Atlantic Driftwood", "Northern Isles" and "Departures".

She has written a traditional/folk music column for the Irish language weekly newspaper Anois and later for the monthly magazine Comhar

Comhar

Comhar is a prominent literary journal in the Irish language, published by the company Comhar Teoranta. It was founded in 1942, and has published work by some of the most notable writers in Irish, including Máirtín Ó Cadhain, Seán Ó Ríordáin, Máirtín Ó Direáin, Máire Mhac an tSaoi and Brendan Behan...

.

Her first book, Vera agus a Veidhlín, a children’s musical story, illustrated by Robert Ballagh

Robert Ballagh

Robert "Bobby" Ballagh is an Irish artist, painter and designer. He was born in Dublin and studied at the Bolton Street College of Technology. His painting style was strongly influenced by pop art...

, was published in Dublin by An Gúm

An Gúm

An Gúm was an Irish state company tasked with the publication of Irish literature, especially educational materials.The agency is now part of Foras na Gaeilge. Its mission statement is "To produce publications and resources in support of Irish-medium education and of the use of Irish in general."...

in 2008.

Since 2007 Máire Breatnach has been involved in the preparation of CDs and books to accompany a range of Irish language material aimed at the Naíonra (pre-school) and early- reading age groups. Máire has produced, composed incidental music and performed on a range of instruments for more than 40 titles, as well as narrating many of them.

Albums

1994 - The Voyage of Bran

1997 - Celtic Lovers

1999 - Angels' Candles/Coinnle na nAingeal

2002 - Dreams and Visions in Irish Song / Aislingí Ceoil

2009 - Cranna Ceoil / In Full Measure

2010 - Tarraing Téad / Pulling Strings (with Cormac De Barra)

External links

• http://www.mairebreatnach.com/