Who is Shannon Quinn?

Since the launch of Shannon Quinn’s album: ‘Feis Fiddle Vol 1’ on FEIS App, the reception the album has received has been phenomenal. From around the world we have received videos of dancers practicing to Shannon’s music, videos of zoom classes using her music, and even a video of David Geaney and Erin McPolin (which has had over 1 million views) dancing to Shannon’s album. The balance between Shannon’s intricate yet rich style and Sean O’Brien’s complementary arrangements is a special coming together, and the Irish dancing community has welcomed the album with open arms.

Shannon is well known in North America and performs regularly throughout the Irish dancing calendar. In other parts of the world however, Shannon is still breaking out, and it’ll be the 2020/2021 season that sees Shannon performing around the world at major feiseanna. Before she does this, FEIS App wants to give you an insight into who she is and what has led her to this point in her musical career.

Shannon grew up in Halifax, Canada, in the very beautful province of Nova Scotia, and her introduction to the violin at 6 years of age was the beginning of a life-long passion. “When I was in primary school a classmate named Allison brought a violin into school for show and tell. I was so jealous of all of the attention that she was receiving that I immediately went home and demanded that my folks get me a violin.” I’m sure the Irish dancing community is grateful that Allison did bring her violin into school that day.

Shannon’s father, a professional musician and comedian who grew up in County Clare, Ireland, immigrated to Canada at a young age. From the very beginning he has been a huge supporter of her music. “I had been playing classical violin for 3 years, and really enjoying it, but when my dad bought me an Irish fiddle tune book for my 9th birthday I became obsessed!” Shannon did revisit classical and jazz music later on, but always knew that Irish fiddle would be her musical love. One of the big influences on Shannon’s music from the traditional Irish music scene is renowned fiddle player Martin Hayes. Martin grew up close to where Shannon’s grandmother is from, Feakle town, County Clare. “The East Clare style of music is really fluid and groovy, and has a really steady, rhythmic pulse. I was drawn to this style of fiddle playing, and also to that repertoire.”

Growing up in Nova Scotia, where Cape Breton style fiddling is the most prominent style (a style originating in Scotland), Shannon found herself a bit of a black sheep: “I do enjoy listening to that style of music, but I was never as keen to sink into the genre as I was with Irish.’

Shannon received a Bachelor of Music from one of the top music schools in Canada — Humber College — renowned for its jazz performance program. “I really love listening to jazz and understanding jazz ear training and theory, and it definitely helped me to understand chord structure and how to arrange music a certain way.” During her time at college Shannon started to teach a few nights a week at a music school in order to support her studies. This would be the start of another passion and Shannon fell in love with teaching music. “I was determined to open a music school when I left college, but that plan would have to go on hold for a little while!”

Not long after she left college Shannon made contact with the Paul Mckenna Band from Scotland, and for three years toured with them around the US and Europe/UK, including performing for a year at Disney World’s Epcot. “It was a wild experience and I was so happy to see so many parts of the world through touring.”

It was around this time that Shannon recorded her second album: ‘If All the Young Ladies’, which was nominated for 9 national awards, winning two. As producer and arranger for the album, Shannon also sang on many of the tracks. More recently Shannon released her third album: ‘Watchmaker’ — a concept album she put together based on the painting ‘The Watchmaker of Switzerland. “The painting shows a young boy keenly observing an old man fixing a watch, and I think it represents passing down an exacting tradition from generation to generation — such as watchmaking, or Irish traditional music — or dance!” This album features a mix of original songs as well as traditional folk songs with modern arrangements.

In her mid twenties Shannon opened her own music school in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. “It’s long been a passion of mine to try to foster the next generation of Irish musicians in Nova Scotia, as the focus here is quite often on preserving Scottish culture.” Shannon recognizes a change in global attitudes towards ‘trad’ music and the resulting resurgence of young trad musicians. “It’s becoming a real ‘cool kid’ thing to play traditional music!”

While Shannon teaches private lessons at her school, there is also a focus on the school’s Irish Ceili Bands. “We have four groups of young musicians at the school and for the past year they have been focusing on the sets and tunes of the Tulla and Kilfenora Ceili Bands from Co. Clare. In 2018 10 students and myself (and their parents, thank goodness) travelled to the Willie Clancy Summer school in county Clare to partake in workshops and concerts, and to bring back those tunes as an inspiration to our community in Nova Scotia. It makes me so happy to see my students heading out to local sessions to play tunes with other musicians. I want to build a community of young Irish musicians — something I didn’t really have growing up.”

Shannon was born in the 90s, and still cites Riverdance and Lord of the Dance as the coolest shows on the planet. Inspired both by the shows’ music and dance, she, like so many others at the time, started Irish dancing — she was 7 years of age.

 “I danced with the Greene School of Irish dancing under Beth and Sinead Greene. They were absolutely wonderful to me, and not only supported my love of Irish dancing, but also my love of music. From the very beginning Beth would encourage me to bring my fiddle to every Irish dance show the school put on, and to get up and play. She suffered through a lot of sour notes!”

Shannon gives Beth most of the credit for her present involvement in the feis world as a musician. Shannon danced until the age of 17, and “loved every minute!” As proud as she is of her own contributions to the growth of Irish music in Nova Scotia, she’s also incredibly proud of two of her closest friends who are contributing to the growth of Irish dancing in the region as well — Becky Chapman, TCRG, and Laura Hopper, TCRG, ADCRG, own the Rising Tide Irish Dance Academy where they both coach. “It’s lovely to see how the dance community has grown here since we have all grown up. There are now four schools in Nova Scotia; when I was dancing there was only one!”

It was soon after Shannon decided to stop dancing that Beth invited her to play at her first feis — Feis Nova Scotia in 2008. “I was so incredibly nervous! I went out to see Tony Nother in London Ontario to gather some basic knowledge about playing feiseanna — speeds, set dance repertoire, and so on. My first feis went really well, and I was hooked. I’ve now been playing at feiseanna for 12 years, and I’ve enjoyed it so much.” Shannon has played both fiddle and piano at majors including multiple Oireachtasi, and the Vancouver Nationals 2019.

Shannon’s journey to FEIS App happened naturally. After getting to know Sean O’Brien at a feis in Denver, and subsequently meeting Anton at the Eastern Canada Oireachtas in 2018, discussions soon started about navigating the best route to get her music onto the platform, and fast. In 2019 it all came together when Shannon flew to Calgary; it was there at Sean O’Brien’s studio that ‘Feis Fiddle, Vol 1’ was created. The connection between Sean’s arrangements and Shannon’s style was instant and this album has been a roaring success since its launch on the app in March 2020.

We are absolutely sure that once the Irish dancing community is able to come together again, you will see Shannon at many major and international championships. We’re extremely proud to have Shannon as part of the team and cannot wait for her to explode onto the global feis scene in the near future.