Leah Bernini Cronin, PhD, MA, MA

Dr. Leah Bernini Cronin is an ethnomusicologist, Irish fiddle player, fiddle teacher, and President of the Irish start-up Cultural Roadmapp.

TEACHING & Performance

Leah has been teaching fiddle, violin, ensembles, master classes, and cultural lectures to students of all ages since 2003. Now living in the US, she teaches Irish traditional fiddle, leads the professional/teaching ensemble Celts Crossing, and teaches a community Irish Music Club at Granville Center for the Arts.

Cultural roadmapp

Leah is president of the Irish-based cultural tourism startup, Cultural Roadmapp, creating GPS-guided cultural audio tour apps for motorists on Ireland's Wild Atlantic Way. Their tour of County Clare is available FREE on the App Store and Google Play. 

Academia

Her doctoral dissertation (2016) explored the neoliberalisation of professional Irish traditional music. She has delivered over 20 conference papers throughout Europe and North America, to great acclaim, and is a sought-after guest lecturer.  

Private lessons, group classes, and performance

Private lessons 

Leah teaches a limited number of Irish fiddle students. All ages and abilities welcome, although she specializes in teaching intermediate-to-advanced adult and teen students, including those new to the genre. Please email for lesson inquiries.

GROUP CLASSES

Leah currently runs a community Irish Music Club at the Granville Center for the Arts, and is the bandleader for Celts Crossing (formerly Millennium House Band), a professional Irish traditional working band that also mentors music students of all ages and abilities. She teaches master classes for the Denison Suzuki Program, and taught Denison University's fiddle ensemble.

Performance

Leah performs Irish traditional music, Irish rock, and Celtic folk music around central Ohio with her band Celts Crossing, often with dancers from the Irwin Academy of Irish Dance. Please email for booking.

GPS-guided cultural audio tours for motorists 

Listen to a sample:

Fieldwork photos

Leah holds a PhD in Ethnomusicology as well as MAs in Irish Traditional Music Performance and Ethnomusicology, all from from the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, University of Limerick in Ireland.

She also holds a BM in Commercial Music Performance and Music Business from Belmont University in Nashville, TN. 

The Neoliberalisation of Cultural Production: An Ethnography of Professional Irish Traditional Music

Selected publications and papers

(2016) The Neoliberalisation of Cultural Production: An Ethnography of Professional Irish Traditional Music, University of Limerick, Doctoral dissertation.

(2020) “Off the record: Irish traditional musicians and the music industry” Ón gCos go Cluas - From Dancing to Listening, Voices from the North Atlantic Fiddle Convention conference held in Derry City, 2012, Edited by Liz Doherty and Fintan Vallely. ISBN 978-0-9511569-9-5. p.218.

(2015) "Capitalism and Resistance in Professional Irish Music" (2015) FocaalBlog, Focaal: Journal of Global and Historical Anthropology, Apr 9.

(2017) “Success in the Culture Industries: Entrepreneurial Neoliberal Rhetoric and Resilience” Irish Council for Traditional Music – World Conference, Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, Limerick, Ireland.

(2016) "Navigating the Neoliberal Music Industry: A Case for Resilience" Working in Music Conference, Glasgow, Scotland.

(2014) '“I Want the Moon”: Negotiating Capitalism and Creativity in the Commercial Music Industry through Discursive Acts of Resistance" Society for Ethnomusicology Annual Conference, Music and Labour, Pittsburgh, USA.

see all

Academic media

PhD fieldwork videos

PhD fieldwork photos