Alison Helzer started playing music at age ten and performed throughout her high school years with the band Tonn Nua. She is best known as a tenor banjo player, but is also accomplished on tenor guitar and octave mandolin. Her solo album, Carolan’s Welcome, features her fondness of J. S. Bach and Turlough O’Carolan. Her recording of the Scottish Gaelic song Fear a Bháta [pronounced ear-ah-VAH-tah] went viral, surpassing 1 million hits on YouTube. Alison graduated from Dartmouth College in 2014 and is currently employed at the University of Oregon. She continues to share her enthusiasm for Celtic, classical, and folk music by performing at small venues and events around the Pacific Northwest.