Fiddle player Mairead Nesbitt is lured back to her first love

Why is Nesbitt laying aside her fiddling for the time being to pursue her love of classical music by releasing a CD of her own compositions?

Mairead Nesbitt: described by the New York Times as a ‘demon of a fiddle player’ Pic: Getty

Mairead Nesbitt is the blistering fiddler who has helped put Celtic Woman at the top of the Billboard world music chart for the past 11 years. Her sizzling style, in which she frequently prances perilously close to stagefront precipices, has never failed to excite audiences worldwide.

She has, more than any other, created the excitement and imagery of the US-based group as a marvel topped only by Riverdance (in which she also performed).