Biography

Lisa McCarroll is an award-winning pianist from Derry, Northern Ireland, and has performed extensively throughout Europe and the United States as a soloist and collaborative pianist. Lisa has enjoyed the stage with established artists such as Grammy Award-winning soprano Jessica Jones; British opera and West End star, baritone Rodney Earl Clarke; clarinetist and artistic director of Sydney Omega Ensemble David Rowden; and award-winning Colombian percussion ensemble Tamborimba. Her playing has been described by critic Bryce Morrison as “a technique that disguises technique, and an art that disguises art.”

A passionate advocate of Irish and Northern Irish classical music, Lisa has made it her mission to promote and perform works from her native country around the world. A primary focus of her work is the two-piano repertoire of Enniskillen-born composer Joan Trimble. Responsible for several U.S. premieres of Trimble’s works, Lisa performed The County Mayo for baritone and two pianos at the 2013 Texas Music Festival Grand Finale Concert, which was broadcast on KUHA 91.7 FM. The William J. Flynn Irish Cultural Center at University of St. Thomas featured Lisa in their 2019 concert series, performing a completely Irish chamber music program with repertoire by Joan Trimble, E. J. Moeran, and Frank Martin. In 2021, Lisa recorded two of Trimble’s most famous and celebrated two-piano works, The Green Bough and The Humours of Carrick, with her brother, pianist Paul McCarroll, at the Moores Opera Center for the University of Houston’s virtual piano series “Piandemia.”

Lisa holds a bachelor’s and LRAM degree from the Royal Academy of Music in London and master’s and doctorate degrees from the University of Houston, Texas. Lisa is indebted to the many distinguished artists she has worked with throughout her career such as Frank Heneghan, Nancy Weems, Timothy Hester, Diana Ketler, Patsy Toh, Michael Dussek, Petras Geniušas, Michael Young, Boris Berman, Anne Epperson, Daniel Sher, Martin Jones, Jun Kanno, Luíz de Moura Castro, Andrew Brownell, Jan Cap, Réamonn Keary, and Fanny Waterman.