She won numerous fiddle contests throughout her youth, including placing in the top 5 of her age division at the National Oldtime Fiddlers’ Contest. She spent many summers attending music festivals and camps, where she learned from renowned Irish fiddlers James Kelly, Liz Carroll, Tommy Peoples, Martin Hayes, and Antóin Mac Gabhann, among others. For her undergraduate studies, Joanna was awarded the Boettcher Scholarship, a full-tuition scholarship to study at any 4-year institution in the state of Colorado. In 2009 she graduated magna cum laude from Colorado College with a BA in Music, and was recognized with the Music Department’s top performance and academic awards.

In 2011, Joanna was selected as one of 10 scholars from across the United States by a panel of distinguished arts professors and professionals to receive the Jack Kent Cook Foundation’s Graduate Arts Award. With this generous grant, she moved to Ireland to pursue an MA in Irish Traditional Music Performance at the University of Limerick’s Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, graduating in 2014. She also taught for BA and MA music programs during her time in UL (and continues to when possible). Currently, Joanna teaches music, and performs with a variety of projects including The Hydes, named New Group of the Year 2017 by the LiveIreland Awards, and the transatlantic trio, One for the Foxes, which was awarded 2021 “Album of the Year” by the ACLSR (American Celtic Listener-Supported Radio) Music Awards.

Joanna also composes, arranges, and performs in a duo with her husband, Tadhg Ó Meachair, with whom she is currently collaborating on an arts audio documentary for Cork County Council.

Growing up in an Irish-speaking household in Dublin, Tadhg was exposed to traditional music from a young age and performed regularly with céilí bands for dances across Ireland throughout his teens. After graduating with a degree in Irish music from the Irish World Academy at the University of Limerick, Tadhg embarked on a performance career that led him to collaborate with revered Irish performers and bands such as Aoife Clancy, Seán Ó Sé, and Danú, as well as international acts like Les Espoirs de Coronthie and Mafilika. He was also chosen by none other than Dónal Lunny to be the pianist in his Lorg Lunny project which was recorded for an eight-episode TV series and culminated in the formation of the band Ciorras.

Beyond performing, Tadhg is a PhD candidate at Indiana University’s Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology. He presents frequently at universities, music workshops, and festivals across Europe and North America, teaching a variety of topics from traditional melody, ensemble, and accompaniment classes, to a range of cultural presentations on the role of music and folklore in tradition, popular culture, and politics. During his time at IU Bloomington, Tadhg has been a regular in the region’s Contra Dance scene. He continues to work most closely with his wife and musical partner – virtuoso fiddler and singer Joanna Hyde – as a duo, in One for the Foxes, and in other projects, including producing a 5-part audio-documentary series On the Wireless, funded by Creative Ireland and Cork County Council.

.

He has performed at the prestigious Ryman auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee, recorded with Grammy award winners Ron Block, Jeff Taylor and Buddy Greene, and toured with Grammy award winners Moya Brennan of Clannad and Ross Holmes of Mumford and Sons. For 10 years, Curley has worked with the award winning traditional super group, SLIDE and also spent 5 successful years with award winning American Roots band RUNA. More recently, Curley has become an integral member to the new Crannua Collective featuring Moya Brennan, John Doyle, Ashley Davis, Mick McCauley, Eamonn and Cormac DeBarra, Colin Farrell, Cathy Jordan and Gawain Matthews.