Gill Collins

Gill has been playing violin since she was 13, having also learned piano & the clarinet. Her mother was a professional classical singer and piano teacher but both Grandfathers had played violin and their instruments were stored at home. One thing soon led to another! The school system steered her into classical music and she was the leader of her first orchestra by the age of 15, reaching Grade 8. Gill has been under the baton of Simon Rattle, if you will pardon the expression, she recorded her first album in 1978. She played the Star Wars theme music in 1978 in the Hampshire County Youth Orchestra - the first orchestra to do so after Spielberg & Co - and to date has never found a more difficult piece of music. Dig it out and listen to the strings. It was Riverdance and The Corrs who awakened an interest in irish music, which led to forming her own band in 2006. More recently she has returned to playing the clarinet, inspired and taught by Helen Gentile from the band Threepenny Bit. Gill plays in her own band Celtic Confusion but has also played with others, amongst them the Treefellahs, Murphy's Lore, Agglestone, Cottage Industry and The Bushwhackers.