ABOUT | Andrew Finn Magill

ABOUT

Andrew Finn Magill is a multi-genre fiddler/violinist, educator and media composer. He has been featured on PBS, NPR, and TEDx and has received many prestigious awards and honors including: the Mid-Atlantic Arts grant in conjunction w/ Tanasi (2025), an invitation as one of ten violinists to compete in the Seifert Competition for jazz violin in Krakow, Poland (2024), a North Carolina Arts Council fellowship to make The Polaris Project (2023), and a Fulbright fellowship (2009). He has released three albums on Grammy-winning Ropeadope Records and self-released eleven others, all of which can be found on Bandcamp.

Magill grew up learning traditional Irish music, oldtime, bluegrass and swing at all of the weeks of Swannanoa Gathering which his father Jim Magill co-founded and directed for 34 years. Through the Gathering's programs, he met many musicians who he would later tour with including Rising Appalachia and Grammy-nominee John Doyle. He now coordinates the Fiddle Week which is one of the premier multi-genre fiddle workshops in the world.

Over the years Magill has toured with Peter Mawanga, Peia, Ian Coury, and Socks in the Frying Pan among dozens of others. He has also toured numerous original projects such as a duo with Solas ' Alan Murray, Brazilian trio Canta, Violino!, and his own quartet of original music. In 2027 Magill will be releasing the follow-up to The Polaris Project , a new album of originals produced by Grammy-winning Justin Stanton (Snarky Puppy).

Upon graduating from the University of North Carolina in 2009, Magill received a Fulbright-mtvU Fellowship to spend a year in Malawi co-writing and co-producing the concept album Stories of AIDS: Mau a Malawi with Malawi's music icon Peter Mawanga. Each song is a a musical portrait of one Malawian's HIV story and the album quickly sold out. Magill wrote and co-directed a multimedia show inspired by the album with Jon Haas and Joseph Megel for a one-time performance for 1,000+ people at the University of North Carolina’s Memorial Hall in October 2011.

From 2014 to 2016, Magill lived in Rio de Janeiro studying choro music. Says the legendary Brazilian percussionist Airto Moreira (Chick Corea, Miles Davis):

“Its nice to see fresh, young musicians carrying on the traditions of Brazilian music. Finn Magill displays a love and authenticity that can fool you into thinking he is from Brazil. His style is playful and light, yet soulful and passionate. Congratulations!”

In 2016, Magill released two albums Roots and and Branches featuring traditional Irish and original music respectively. Roots debuted at #46 on the Folk DJ charts and writes Grammy-winning Americana artist Tim O’Brien:

“He has learned from and now plays with the best in the genre. On Branches you can hear a new musical voice emerging. I’m gonna keep listening for Finn Magill.”

In 2018, leveraging a background in both traditional Irish and American music, Magill created the lecture series “The relationships between Irish, Scottish, and American fiddle styles: an Immigration Story,” which is a musical presentation for adults that explores the connections between these styles through their fiddle tunes. Magill has given this lecture at dozens of universities, libraries, and museums across the country including Shepherd University, Mars Hill University, the University of Kentucky, and Northeast State Community College, among others.

Since 2021, Magill has scored for film and television with projects ranging from short indie films to commercials. He has also worked closely with celebrated film composer Christopher LaRue Horton on a number of other film projects as a featured violinist and since 2025 the two have been composed exclusively for sync and licensing placements.

Magill is also a professional voice actor for radio, film, tv and audiobooks and speaks fluent Portuguese and French. To hear one of his audiobooks, listen here.

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