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Niamh hails from Killarney, where she started playing music at the age of 4. An All-Ireland Champion on both fiddle and concertina, Niamh had supported The Chieftains and Noel Hill, in addition to performing at festivals throughout France and England, before reaching her teens. She toured Europe, Asia and North America for 8 years as a soloist with Riverdance, performing in over 2500 shows, before returning to Ireland where she is now based.
She has taught both fiddle and concertina at Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann's national headquarters, An Cultúrlann, in Monkstown, and regularly gives workshops on both instruments. She released her debut album "Ón Dá Thaobh / From Both Sides" in 2007 to much critical acclaim - it was the only Irish album to make MOJO's Top Ten Folk Albums for 2007. She was also presented with the "Best Trad Music Act 2008" award by The Irish World, the largest newspaper for the Irish community in Britain. Along with performing regularly as a solo artist, Niamh also tours extensively as a member of the Carlos Núñez band.
Irish Times - 4 stars
"Forget talk of tradition versus innovation: Ní Charra's facility with everything from 19th-century Italian composer Giulio Regondi's Allegretto No. 4, to a glorious set of Sliabh Luachra slides, reflect a musician at home with music of any hue"
Siobhán Long, 02/03/07
Fresh from the footlights of Riverdance, Niamh Ní Charra is a consumate showgirl. Less than two minutes into this debut CD, the change from languid fiddle to fiery concertina grabs your attention, and from that moment you're hooked. Whether it's slow airs or reels, jigs or czardas, nothing disappoints. Yes, czardas: four of them, fiddle triupmhs each one, followed by a masterly handling of The Gravel Walks. Other forays beyond Irish music include Bill Monroe's bluegrass slow drag Crossing the Cumberlands and one of the many classical compositions for (English) concertina, both delivered with charm and panache. Niamh's native Kerry is evident in the relaxed pace of reels and jigs, and the contrasting vigour with which the final set of slides is attacked. Johnny O'Leary's and The Hare in the Corn get a good battering, while The Turnpike receives the sweetest treatment I can recall.
The lightning switches between fiddle and concertina are not a feature of Niamh's live performances, but most of the other arrangements stay clear of studio effects. To be honest, Niamh doesn't need 'em: she can vary the pace and style on her two instruments, and the addition of a few backing musicians is more than enough to fill fifty-two minutes. She also has the sense to bring in Brendan Begley for vocals on the song An Raibh Tú ag an gCarraig, and to use his accordion for added punch on those slides. Her own compositions are better than good, six of them spread across thirteen tracks. San Antonio and Downtime Delirium are powerful modern reels, and the waltz Soldier's Exile shows a gentler side of Niamh's creative talent. Whichever side you look at it from, Niamh Ní Charra's solo debut is a total success: www.niamhnicharra.com will get you even closer to her music, and tell you what else she's up to.
Alex Monaghan, Living Tradition
Far more inspiring is the debut album by another Riverdance-featured fiddler, Kerry's Niamh Ní Charra, and it's certainly bolstered by her exceptional concertina playing (no better revealed than on the opening set's audacious trio of slip jigs). The aptly named From Both Sides reveals a wonderfully sensitive player of airs (on both instruments), a sprightly interpreter of itinerant harper Carolan's music, someone innately capable of rendering the jauntiness of hornpipes (check Wade Hampton's for evidence) and a marvellously dextrous player of her county's pet tunes, such as a set of slides kicked off by Johnny O'Leary's.
Froots Magazine
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