Below are three bios in diminshing size - enjoy!

Since she was 18, when she astounded the Celtic music world by winning the Senior All-Ireland Championship, Liz and her fiddle have been amazing audiences around the globe. In recent years, she has been honored with many accolades, including the nomination for a 2010 Grammy, along with John Doyle, for their duet album, "Double Play." And in April of 2011, Liz was awarded the Cumadóir TG4, the first American-born composer honored with Ireland's most significant traditional music prize.

Liz published a book of her compositions in 2010. Entitled "Collected," it includes a remarkable compendium of music that Liz began composing when she was just a child. Those tunes, as well as Liz's vital performances on concert stages, television and radio, have established Liz as one of traditional music's most sought after performers.

 
          Liz as a child, with her grandfather Tom Cahill on
       the violin, and her father Kevin Carroll on the accordion.

"Lost in the Loop," released in 2000, won Liz new fans around the world, as it garnered an Indie Award and Liz being named Traditional Performer of the Year for 2000.

Not that that's the first time a solo record by Liz has been praised. Liz's first solo, in 1988, "Liz Carroll," was chosen as a select record of American folk music by the Library of Congress, no less. That same recording was called "a milestone achievement in the career of a fiddler reaching beyond herself," by noted critic Earle Hitchner.

It should be noted that Liz's recordings are in the majority her own compositions, and they have given her a stature equal to that of her playing. When you listen to a Liz album, you're hearing the tunes of a composer celebrated for invigorating the traditional styles of Irish music. Her compositions have entered into the repertoire of Irish and Celtic performers throughout the world. If you walk into an Irish pub and a group of Irish musicians are in the corner, ask for a set of Liz tunes. They'll probably buy you a pint in thanks!

That makes the 2010 debut of "Collected" such an important occasion. Liz's fans and fellow musicians have been clamoring for years for the book. And thanks to the Shamrock Traditional Irish Music Society and the Milwaukee Irish Fest Foundation, who both provided critical funding for the book - it's finally here!

But it is Liz in concert that has entranced audiences throughout the States, and also in tours of Ireland, Europe, and Africa. Neil Tesser of Chicago's Reader marvels that "her quicksilver lines can captivate violin admirers way beyond the bounds of Hibernia." P.J. Curtis of the Irish American says that Liz "conjures up a dizzying mixture of the sweetest tones, the fastest runs, and the most dazzling display of musicianship imaginable." One of Liz's proudest concert moments was at the 1st American Congress of the Violin, hosted by Yehudi Menuhin.

In 1994, the National Endowment for the Arts awarded Liz a National Heritage Fellowship for her great influence on Irish music in America, as a performer and a composer. First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton presented the award which bestows national recognition on artists of international stature.


Honors
In 2011, Liz was awarded the Cumadóir TG4, the first American-born composer honored with Ireland's most significant traditional music prize.

Liz was honored at the 2010 iBAM (Irish Books, Arts, Music) Cultural Arts Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Music.

The Irish Voice named Liz one of their 2010 50 Most Influential Women.

On March 17, 2009, Liz and John Doyle entertained President Barack Obama at the annual St. Patrick's Day luncheon at the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. The event was hosted by then Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, and guests included the new Taoiseach (Prime Minister) of Ireland, Mr. Brian Cowen.

"Double Play," Liz's 2009 duet album with John Doyle, is nominated for a 2010 Grammy for Best Traditional World Music Album.

Liz is named Irish Traditional Musician of the Year 2000 by Earle Hitchner of the Irish Echo.

"Lost in the Loop" wins an AFIM Indie Award in ceremonies May 5th, 2001 at the Regal Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles. The Association for Independent Music named Liz's recording best in the Celtic/British Isles Category.

Mayor Richard M. Daley of Chicago proclaims Liz Carroll Day in Chicago on September 18, 1999.

Irish-American Magazine names Liz one of the Top 100 Irish Americans of 1995.

Liz is presented a National Heritage Award Fellowship in 1994 by Hillary Clinton. The award identifies Liz as a "Master Traditional Artist who has contributed to the shaping of our artistic traditions and to preserving the cultural diversity of the United States."

"Liz Carroll" album named a select record of American folk music by the Library of Congress in 1988.

All-Ireland Senior Fiddle Champion in 1975.

All-Ireland Senior Duet Champion, with Jimmy Keane, in 1975.

All-Ireland Junior Fiddle Champion in 1974.

Liz Carroll has had a remarkable century. Liz’s 2009 recording with John Doyle, Double Play, was nominated for a 2010 Grammy. That made Liz the first American-born artist nominated for playing Irish music – ever! On St. Patrick’s Day 2009, Liz travelled to Washington, D.C., to play for fellow Chicagoan, President Obama, at the annual St. Patrick’s Day luncheon. In 2005, she became a member of String Sisters, a sextet of fiddlers from America, Ireland, the Shetland Islands and Norway. Their 2009 Live album was shortlisted for a Grammy. And Liz’s first duet album with John Doyle, In Play, caused Sing Out! Magazine’s Rob Weir to exclaim “Liz Carroll recordings induce joy and admiration that exhaust this reviewer's feeble descriptors."

Previous to that were two solo albums, Lake Effect and Lost in the Loop, which used Liz’s hometown of Chicago as the influence for an extraordinary outpouring of new compositions. The 2000 Lost in the Loop album led the Irish Echo to proclaim her the Traditional Musician of the Year.

All that has come this century, but in the last came a National Heritage Award Fellowship in 1994, which honored Liz as a "Master Traditional Artist who has contributed to the shaping of our artistic traditions and to preserving the cultural diversity of the United States." A mouthful, to be sure, but such national recognition stood on her winning the 1975 All-Ireland Senior Fiddle Championship to Mayor Daley proclaiming September 18, 1999 as “Liz Carroll Day” in Chicago.

The coming decade looks to be as active as the last. 2010 brought the publication of Liz’s first book of compositions, “Collected.” It’s a compilation of Liz’s musical past, as well as a promise for the future - a past and future honored just this year with Ireland's most revered traditional music prize, the Cumadóir TG4 (Composer of the Year!).

Liz Carroll was born in Chicago of Irish parents. She's a junior and senior All-Ireland Fiddle Champion, and has toured as a solo artist and with the Greenfields of America, Trian, String Sisters, and as part of the duo Liz Carroll & John Doyle. She's featured on nine albums and has appeared on many more, and in 2009 she became the first Irish-American musician nominated for a Grammy. In addition, Liz is a recipient of the National Heritage Fellowship Award (1994).

Liz began her musical studies at Visitation Grade School on Chicago's Southside. She began violin lessons when the piano her parents had rented couldn't make it to the second floor of the home on Garfield Boulevard. As the truck pulled away, and over Liz's tears, her parents agreed that Liz should take up the fiddle.

Liz's first teacher was Sister Francine, who would often admonish Liz after a lesson, "Now, who worked harder, me or you?" Actually, Sister Francine had an inspiring love for music, and recognized a kindred spirit in Liz.

When Sister Francine transferred, Liz continued classical training with Herbert Silberstein, a great violinist and conductor in the Chicago area. But it was in the latter stages of her time in grade school that Liz recognized that she'd had enough of the classics, and told her parents "I don't want you to waste your money."

From then on, Liz learned at the literal feet of the great Chicago traditional musicians, especially those of the Chicago Irish Musicians Association. Phil Durkin, for instance, formally taught Liz fiddle for about a year's time just before she became a teenager. From then on, Liz learned the tunes, and tested her own compositions, at the local seisúns held at local pubs, as well as in the basement of Old St. Patrick's Church in Chicago's West Loop. The list of these musicians is exhaustive, but Liz's key influences include the fiddler Johnny McGreevy, piper Joe Shannon, the Galway accordion player Joe Cooley, and flautists Seamus Cooley and Kevin Henry.

Liz also has been influenced by those who grew up alongside her in the music, including Jimmy Keane, Marty Fahey, Johnny Harling, and Michael Flatley, among many others who either grew up in Chicago or who came to the city and found a nurturing community of musicians.

An excellent article about Chicago's Irish music history, written by Larry McCullough, can be found here.