Mary Bergin

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Mary Bergin (1949 – ) is an Irish folk musician who is widely acknowledged as one of the great masters of the tin whistle.

Born in Shankill, County Dublin, she started learning to play the tin whistle at the age of nine. Largely influenced by the great player of old, Packie Duignan. She won the All Ireland tin whistle championship in 1968^{[citation needed]}. Her two virtuosic recordings of solo tin whistle, Feadóga Stáin (1979) and Feadóga Stáin 2 (1993), have been critically cited as "outstanding and unequalled."^[1].

Bergin moved to Spiddal, County Galway in the early 1970s and played with many of the up and coming stars of the Irish music scene, notably De Danann. She is currently a member of the group Dordán, who perform Irish traditional music and Baroque music.

In addition to releasing two solo albums, which aided the popularisation of modern traditional Irish tin whistle playing, and three albums with Dordán, she has taught hundreds of students, in Ireland, across Europe, and in the United States, to play the whistle. Her playing is characterized by great feeling, technical virtuosity, and a respect for the music.

[edit] External links

• Mary Bergin discography at MusicBrainz
• http://www.rogermillington.com/tunetoc/overthebridge.html Mary Bergin's performance of Over the Bridge with comments and score

[edit] Notes

1. ^ Vallely

[edit] References

• Ronan Nolan. Mary Bergin. RamblingHouse. Retrieved on 26 January 2006.
• Vallely, Fintan; Piggott, Charlie (1998). Blooming Meadows: The World of Irish Traditional Musicians, Nutan, Roberts Rinehart Publishers, 28-33. ISBN 1-86059-067-5.