Gina Le Faux March: 10th 2006
Gina Le Faux is one of the great fiddle players on the British folk/roots music scene. She is an international performer and has toured extensively in Britain, Europe and the USA. Gina is an exceptional singer and interpreter of songs old and new, a recent performance was described as ‘White Soul’and her guitar playing was described as ‘Spellbinding’.
She grew up in Liverpool and was raised in an atmosphere of traditional music and learned her first songs as a child from her family. Gina has been playing traditional dance music for most of her life and was the last pupil of the late James Carmichael of Ballymena, traditional fiddle player and singer who contributed songs and tunes to Sam Henry’s ‘Songs of the People’ collection and was an influence on Gina’s music when she was a teenager.
In the late 70’s Gina lived in the West Highlands of Scotland, she moved to Edinburgh in the early 80’s, then to London and now lives in West Yorkshire.
Gina has worked with most of the folk scene’s legendary performers including John Kirkpatrick, Martin Carthy, Martin Simpson and Dick Gaughan and was a member of Hom Bru, Shegui, Red Shift and The Tannahill Weavers. She has released 6 solo albums and appeared on many albums with other artists. Her solo albums have all received critical acclaim, three of them were nominated for the ‘Folk Roots’ Critics Panel Album Of The Year. She was featured in the Television documentary about Cecil Sharp, ‘Sweet was the Notes’. The TV programme used Folk South West’s ‘Fanfare For The South West’ for which Gina composed the linking themes and which was arranged and orchestrated by John Kirkpatrick.
She is one of the UK’s leading teachers of traditional fiddle and has run workshops for all of the major teaching organisations in England including Folkworks, Folk South West, Hands On Music and The Yorkshire Dales Workshops.
Gina’s interest in 18th century dance music led Shirley Collins to describe her as a ‘Baroque Fiddler’ and she was a guest soloist with, Ensemble Suave, a Baroque music ensemble, at a concert in Boston, USA in 2004.
Apart from her singing and renowned musicianship, Gina Le Faux is a great communicator and entertainer and has a wicked sense of humour.
Gina Le Faux’s website used to be found at http://www.ginalefaux.com.