Brenda Cochrane, sometimes known as The Voice, is widely regarded as one of Scotland’s greatest hidden talents. She is still remembered by many as the young woman who won the TV talent show Opportunity Knocks back in 1988 with the largest ever recorded vote with her stunning rendition of New York New York. Since then she has appeared regularly on the Scottish stage and is in demand by the world's top cruise lines.
CRAN, an Irish folk 3-piece, are unique in Irish folkmusic in that their repertory is divided equally between music and song. Each member of the trio already had international reputations in their own fields before the band was formed: Desi Wilkinson, in the field of Irish flute-playing both at home and abroad; Sean Corcoran, as one of the leading singers in the Hiberno-English and Gaelic traditions and also as a researcher and teacher; Ronan Browne, as one of the leading lights among the younger generation of uilleann pipers, was already giving master-classes worldwide.
Led by Frankie Gavin (fiddle) and Alec Finn (bouzouki) with an ever-changing line-up of other musicians and singers, De Dannan exemplify a band who stick closely to their trad roots but aren't afraid from time to time to go out on a flyer! De Dannan (originally Dé Danann) was an Irish folk music group. They were formed by Charlie Piggott (banjo & melodian), Alec Finn (guitar, bouzouki), Johnny "Ringo" McDonagh (bodhrán)and Frankie Gavin (fiddle)as a result of sessions in Hughes's Pub in Spiddal, County Galway, subsequently inviting Dolores Keane (vocals) to join the band.
The Chieftains are a Grammy winning Irish musical group founded in 1962, known for performing and popularizing Irish traditional music. The band has recorded many albums of instrumental Irish folk music, as well as multiple collaborations with popular musicians of many genres, including Country music, Galician traditional music, Cape Breton and Newfoundland music, and rock and roll. They have performed with Van Morrison, The Rolling Stones, Sting, Roger Daltrey, Elvis Costello, Tom Jones, Sinéad O'Connor, James Galway, Jackson Browne, Nancy Griffith and numerous country-western artists.
Finbar Furey (b.1948 in Dublin, Ireland) is considered one of the finest Uilleann Pipes players in the world.
He was (is?) a member of the legendary Irish traditional group The Fureys.
Joglaresa is a London-based early-music ensemble, formed in 1990. Aside from its English leader, Belinda Sykes, its members are British, Israeli, Irish, and Arabic, and all these cultural strands are to be found in their music, together with many others. Rather than playing early music in a standard sense, or "fusions" with modern traditions, they attempt to create an homogenous sound that marries all their influences.