Winifred Horan (fiddle) is a violin graduate of boston's prestigious New England Conservatory of Music, this native New Yorker previously toured and recorded with Cherish the Ladies and The Sharon Shannon Band. A nine-time Irish stepdancing titlist, and an All-Ireland fiddle champion, Winifred has made guest appearances on many albums including: Richard Shindell, Patty Larkin, Seamus Egan, Pierce Turner, Karan Casey, Liz Carroll, Sharon Shannon, Mick McAuley,Eileen Ivers and Cathy Ryan to name just a few. Her eagerly awaited solo album titled "Just One Wish" was released on Shanachie Records in October of 2002 to much critical acclaim.The album appeared on many top ten lists including the Boston Globe, the Irish Times, the Irish Echo and PhiladelphiaWeekly. Winifred also recorded and released another album this year titled "Winifred Horan and Friends" for the Cracker Barrel chain.

Winifred Horan

Two albums that feature Winifred Horan's fiddling placed in the Irish Echo's top 20 list for 2002: "Just One Wish" (No. 7), a superb solo debut comprising mostly her own tunes, and Solas's "The Edge of Silence" (No. 18), a band recording with a contemporary slant, for which she wrote or co-wrote two tunes. Born in New York City to parents from Arklow, Co. Wicklow, Horan also released the more straightforwardly traditional "Pleasures of Home," part of a 15-CD series compiled by the National Council for the Traditional Arts for Cracker Barrel, a chain of country store restaurants. It's well worth burrowing through Cracker Barrel's tchotchke-choked gift shops to find this CD. Her ear for countermelody and interlude is second to none, and Horan's classical training gives her the tools to implement what her taste and imagination summon up.

WINIFRED HORAN
(Ireland) She plays kickin' backup with a number of bands, mainly Solas. I haven't found a solo album by her, but she makes just about any band worthwhile.

Winifred Horan has performance skills just as impressive as Casey's. One of the most accomplished Irish stepdancers New York City has ever produced, with nine North American titles to her credit, Horan took early lessons in Irish fiddling and won an All-Ireland junior championship at age 11. Then she switched to classical music. For 15 years she devoted herself to it, winning scholarships to the Mannes College of Music in Manhattan and later the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. There she performed with a number of string quartets and orchestras, including the Boston Pops. But Horan returned to her first love, Irish traditional music and dance, not long after she returned to New York in 1990. Initially she was asked to stepdance with Cherish the Ladies, an ensemble featuring many of the best Irish American women performers today, and later she played fiddle with them. After four years in Cherish the Ladies, Horan left to form Solas, and she now also plays with the band headed by button accordionist Sharon Shannon out of Ireland.