Linda Hickman

Linda comes from a musical family. Her father played French horn and trombone and his mother was a concert pianist. Linda’s mother was a singer and sang all types of songs, passing that love for song along to her children. In 1982, she moved from Washington, DC to New York City and studied flute with East Galway flute player, Jack Coen. She also learned tunes on flute and tin whistle from Father Charlie Coen and later from another East Galway flute player, Mike Rafferty. Linda lives in Staten Island, NY and plays at sessions and for set dancing. She is an original member of Celtic Thunder and plays with Ceol na gCroi Ceili Band, playing for ceilis throughout the Tri-State area with John Nolan (accordion) and Brendan Fahey (drums). In 2016, Linda was inducted into the Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann-Mid Atlantic Region Hall of Fame for her contribution to Irish music and dance in the New York area. She has taught tin whistle at Irish Arts Weeks in East Durham, New York for over 20 years and in 2015, she was honored by the Michael J. Quill Irish Cultural Center in East Durham for teaching and playing Irish music. She is a 2012 inductee into the People’s Choice Hall of Fame for NYC sponsored by CityLore in conjunction with Staten Island Arts and in 2021, she was the recipient of a City Artists Corps Grant from New York Foundation for the Arts to preview the opening of her film Me and the Sea. She continues to teach traditional Irish music on flute and whistle online on Zoom, Skype and FaceTime.