Matt Cranitch is renowned as a fiddle-player and teacher, both at home in Ireland and abroad. He has performed extensively at concerts and festivals, on radio and television, and has presented lectures, master-classes and workshops on various aspects of Irish music.
He has won All-Ireland Fleadh Cheoil titles, as well as The Fiddler of Dooney and Oireachtas Crotty Cup. Author of The Irish Fiddle Book, first published in 1988 and now in its fourth edition, he has also contributed to other books on Irish traditional music. He has made various albums, including those with Na Filí, Any Old Time and Sliabh Notes, in addition to Éistigh Seal which consists entirely of slow airs. With Jackie Daly, he has recorded The Living Stream and Rolling On.
He is an authority on the music of Sliabh Luachra, and received a PhD from the University of Limerick for his study on the fiddle-playing tradition of this region. He has taught a number of courses in Irish traditional music during various years at University College Cork. A long-time consultant for the Geantraí series on TG4 (Irish-language TV), he is a former adviser to the Irish Arts Council scheme for the traditional arts, and has served on the board of the Irish Traditional Music Archive.
In recognition of his contribution to Irish traditional music, he has received various accolades, including: University College Cork Hall of Fame Award in 2003; M.J. Quill Irish Cultural Center NY Award in 2014; Patrick O’Keeffe Traditional Music Festival Award in 2017
Instructor – Fiddle
2007, 2008, 2012, 2023