Conor Caldwell is a fiddle player from north Belfast. He currently serves as Course Director for the MA in Irish Traditional Music Performance at the Irish World Academy in the University of Limerick. His research explores various aspects of music in Ireland, including style, structure and form in traditional performance.

Known for his energetic northern fiddle style, Conor’s music is informed by his exploration of both archival and contemporary sources.

His music breathes new life into archival treasure, exploring the versatility of his instrument in both solo and ensemble contexts. He is also a noted teacher and lecturer of Irish traditional music. He has collaborated in the past with Craobh Rua and the international ensemble, Òran Bagraidh. Conor has also toured with the group Fidil and shared the stage with members of The Bothy Band, Altan and Planxty.

Growing up on the foot of Cavehill, Conor learned classical music at St Malachy’s College, Belfast while developing his interest in the Donegal style of fiddle playing. His key early influences included James Byrne, Ruadhraí O’Kane, Paul O’Shaughnessy and Dermie Diamond.

 Conor’s collaboration, NORTH (2016), with fellow fiddler Danny Diamond is an enduring modern classic, described as a ‘long-playing delight’ by Siobhán Long in The Irish Times. NORTH weaved together the duo’s lived experience in the Donegal music scene with their intensive exploration of archival material.

All aspects of Irish traditional music, but with a particular focus on linking archival sources with contemporary performance practice. My initial and most prominent work to date has been in the fiddle styles and techniques of southwest Donegal, but has expanded to include examinations of Irish song in both historical and contemporary contexts. Recent major projects have included an arts-practice focussed examination of the influence of jazz culture on Irish traditional music in the early twentieth century.

Key Publications/Projects

The Oxford Handbook of Irish Song (2024)

The Oxford Handbook of Irish Song, 1100-1850, is a landmark publication, encompassing the work of more than thirty experts on various aspects of singing culture in Ireland from the middle ages to the dawn of the recording era. Rather than focusing myopically on one tradition or style, the book contains perspectives on the way that singers, songs and composers developed in multiple socio-economic and linguistic settings. The book builds a rounded picture of the way in which elite and proletarian culture interacted with each other in Ireland throughout the long eighteenth century. Important perspectives on the sean nos singing tradition are brought to the fore with the inclusion of work from a significant number of noted experts in this field. 
This book will become a core teaching text in universities with Irish studies and represents a new standard in the bringing together of original research from key scholars of their generation. Beyond encyclopedias, a reader of this scale and depth has never been published before in the field of Irish music and it will stand as a sector leading publication for some time to come.  Oxford Univerisiy Press is on the University's list of prestigious publishers.
I am a co-editor of this book and am responsible for guiding it from conception, in  2013, through to its online publication at present and forthcoming physical publication. In addition, I have two research essays in the book, one of which at the time of writing this application has passed the review stage and is currently being typeset with the publishers. This piece can be viewed here. The second will clear review in the coming weeks. I am also a co-writer of the introduction which will be the last piece of writing published in the book. 

Tommy Peoples: A Portrait of an Artist (2023)

Tommy Peoples: A Portrait of an Artist is a substantial online exhibition, hosted by the Irish Traditional Music Archive, which offers a retrospective on the life's work of one of Ireland's most important musicians and composers. The exhibition is divided into chapters, each of which offer insight into various aspects of Peoples' life. 

The project makes a substantial contribution to the field a variety of content forms. These include: newly commissioned interviews (around eight hours of professionally produced material), musical transcriptions (around fifty items), written analysis (nearly 20,000 words), contextual material (incl numerous photographs) and the release of previously unheard recordings (c.300 minutes) .

The project makes a substantial contribution to the field and sets a new standard for online exhibitions in Irish traditional music.

My role in this project was a co-curator and co-author with primary responsibility for (1) authoring the text in the collection (2) cataloguing and selecting audio recordings for publication. I had additional responsibilities in conducted a number of the interviews and in selecting/editing the material for publication.

Beart Bunting (2022) 

‘Beart Bunting’ (‘Bunting’s Gift’) is a television documentary commissioned jointly by the BBC and TG4 and produced by Dearcan Media. It was developed from my historical research in Irish music. It focusses on musicological, sociological and political research inspired by Manuscript 4.6 of the Edward Bunting Collection, arguably the most important collection ever made of music in Ireland, which was completed around 1815. Examining the evidence from this collection of musical examples gathered from many corners of Ireland, it was clear that the silos into which various sub-genres of Irish music have been placed in academic discourse was not historically accurate. The manuscript contains Gaelic song airs, lyrics and harp tunes, as well as functional military music (retreats/advances etc.) and country dance tunes from the period. The synergy between the common repertoire of British military bands in Ireland at the time, and that of the piper, fiddler and Gaelic language singer, is striking and proves that the British military, increasingly made of up Irish volunteers at the beginning of the nineteenth century, was a key participant in the spread of country dance music from one part of Ireland to another.
I was involved in this project as a musical advisor, researcher, interviewee and performer, bringing my extensive knowledge of the Bunting manuscript to help contextualise the project.
In the context of the north of Ireland today, the historical British military music tradition is celebrated by those from the Loyalist communities, particularly during the marching season of the summer months, while the Gaelic language song tradition and remnants of the country dance tradition, transformed into what we now term ‘Irish traditional music’ are seen as the cultural property of Irish nationalists. The programme sought a pathway to bring expert musicians from disparate communities or practice for a communal performance of some of the music from Bunting’s MS6.4.