Frankie Gavin - Cork Folk Festival

43rd Cork Folk Festival presents Frankie Gavin, Fiddle, with Catherine McHugh, Piano, at a concert to Launch the new Album, Port Eireann.
 
Frankie Gavin is one of the most renowned living Irish musicians. Though primarily known as a virtuoso fiddler and founder member of De Danann, he has composed several tunes. One in particular, ‘Alice’s Reel’, has entered the standard repertoire.
 
Frankie Gavin was born in 1956 in Corrandulla, Co. Galway. He comes from a musical family: his father, mother and family all played Irish Music. He started playing the tin whistle at age four, making his first T.V. appearance three years later. At the age of ten years old Frankie began to play fiddle and at the age of seventeen he placed first in the All Ireland Fiddle Competition and in the All Ireland Flute Competition, both on the same day.
 
Mainly learning by ear, he was strongly influenced by the 78 recordings of Michael Coleman and James Morrison. Sessions in the Cellar Bar, Galway and later in Hughes’ pub in Spiddal led to the formation of De Dannan in 1973.