Born in Italy to an Italian father and a Scottish mother, Andrea Palandri was raised in London until the age of nine and in Venice, Italy until the age of eighteen. He began playing classical violin at the age of four but soon acquired a taste for traditional music through his mother’s collections of Scottish traditional music tapes. Drawn by the connections between Scottish and Irish traditional music, Andrea began making frequent visits to Ireland from the age of seventeen through which he began to develop a particular interest in the fiddle playing of Paddy Cronin, Denis Murphy and in the bowing techniques taught in the manuscripts of Pádraig O’Keeffe. 

As a solo musician, Andrea has performed at prestigious events and venues across Ireland since moving here in 2014, including the Masters of Tradition Festival in Bantry (August 2021) and the Royal Irish Academy of Music (December 2023). He has often appeared in duets alongside some of Ireland’s foremost young traditional artists, including Conor Connolly (Ceoltóir Óg na Bliana TG4, 2019) and Pádraic Keane (Ceoltóir Óg na Bliana TG4, 2011). He was also one of four performers on ITMA’s national tour in December 2023, where he performed alongside Pádraic Keane, Síle Denvir (Amhránaí na Bliana TG4, 2023) and Caitlín Nic Gabhann in six venues across the country. In 2016 he featured as a guest musician on two tracks of Aidan Connolly’s debut album Be Off, released on Raelach Records. In February of 2019 he performed with Conor Connolly and Michael McCague live for TG4 from the stage of the Gradam Ceoil awards in Belfast.