To lift the Irish Folk Festivals fans to the seventh fiddle heaven is to invite Ireland's fiddle star Zoe Conway and her guitarist, John McIntyre.
There is hardly another fiddle player who is more in the floodlight. In 2005 she was awarded "Best Traditional Female of the Year" at the Irish Music Awards, and was for the entire year the featured soloist with Riverdance. At 19 she won the "All Ireland Champion" title. No less than the composer of Riverdance - Bill Whelan - produced her debut album. She has performed with artists such as Damien Rice, Rodrigo y Gabriella, Phil Coulter, and recently she was featured on an album alongside Andrea Corr and Bono. She has also recorded with the up and coming young rock band, The Revs, and it is the guitarist of The Revs, John McIntyre, that Zoe is performing with on this IFF tour!
A surprising aspect of this young couple is the musical diversity. Promoting Zoe as a fiddle star is only half of the truth. As a classical soloist she has played with all the major Irish orchestras all over the world in famous halls such as Carnegie in New York or the National Concert Hall in Dublin. Zoe is inspired by a broad spectrum of music, ranging from Jazz-Swing legend, Stephane Grappelli, to Appalachian and Country music, and she even takes influences from Indian and World music. John finds it as exciting to accompany this eclectic mix on the acoustic guitar as composing pop songs on his electric guitar.
Whilst the instrumental qualities of this duo are exceptional we should not omit their great potential as vocalists.
