ICYMI: #WomanCrushWednesday IG Live featuring Brigit O'Regan

BY LAURA HARPER/WWR Staff Writer

Known to over 3.4 million people as the “Violin Girl,” there was no better person to help Women Who Rock celebrate St. Patrick’s Day than electric violinist and self-proclaimed “professional nerd” Brigit O’Regan.

O’Regan started playing violin at the age of five, as her mother is also a classically trained violinist. However, violin was not something she really enjoyed at first.

“Once I started learning fiddle and rock and other types of genres, that’s when the fun started,” O’Regan said.

Around the age of twelve, O’Regan’s mother would drive her and a small group of friends around to play small gigs at weddings and festivals. From there, her love of performing started to grow.

Eventually, O’Regan started playing her violin outside of the Toronto, Canada Comic-Con in the hope of earning some money that she could use to buy a pass for the convention. While playing outside of the Toronto Fan Expo in 2017, she was spotted by the CEO of the convention, who gave her a free pass to play inside.

Although she was nervous at the prospect of playing inside of the convention, O’Regan started doing small performances for cosplayers. With the permission of the cosplayer, she would play their character’s theme on her violin while her friend recorded it. The videos were then posted on YouTube, where they started to gain traction.

Now, O’Regan has gained quite a bit of recognition for playing covers of pop and rock hits on both acoustic and electric violin. While the COVID-19 global pandemic has temporarily halted any opportunities for her to play live, especially in a large city like Toronto, she put together a bunch of virtual material for St. Patrick’s Day, a holiday that she starts preparing for right at the beginning of each new year.

“St. Patrick’s Day is just on my mind as soon as the year rolls over,” O’Regan said.

During the interview, O’Regan played two fiddle tunes on her acoustic violin, expressing her love for Celtic music, since those pieces often lend themselves to a fun atmosphere and always seem to make audiences smile.

When it comes to being able to play pieces without sheet music to guide her, O’Regan credits her synesthesia, a neurological condition in which information that is meant to stimulate one sense actually stimulates multiple senses simultaneously. For O’Regan, music has a taste that allows her to memorize it more easily without the aid of printed music.

Beyond St. Patrick’s Day, O’Regan also plans to release her first original single called “Gaslight” on March 26. This single is something she has been working on for a while and was originally meant to be released as part of an EP prior to the onset of the pandemic.

For those looking to pick up a violin for the first time or revisit it after many years of not playing, O’Regan offered some practical advice:

“Don’t buy your violin; rent your violin,” she said. “Use the money you saved to buy lessons.”

For more on Brigit O’Regan, and to watch her violin performance, you can check out the entire interview on the @OfficialWomenWhoRock IGTV channel on Instagram.