From the very beginning, it was clear that Eileen Ivers was an unusually talented young fiddle player. By the time she was 19, she'd won the prestigious All Ireland music competition seven years in a row, a feat that marked her as a real prodigy in Irish music circles.

Eventually, she parlayed that skill into a featured spot in the step-dance extravaganza "Riverdance," making her one of the most recognized Irish instrumentalists around. Tonight, she'll be at the Meyerhoff with the Chieftains, perhaps the best-known Irish traditional group in the world.

But then, Ivers was lucky, because she grew up in a real hotbed of Irish music: The Bronx.

Given the number of Irish that emigrated to America, it shouldn't be surprising that a good bit of music came over as well.

As a result, a number of All Ireland champions in the last two decades have been born and raised in the Bronx -- not just Ivers, but also flutist Joan Madden and multi-instrumentalist Seamus Egan.

But even though she grew up with Irish parents, surrounded by Irish music, the 33-year-old Ivers wasn't inspired to pick up the fiddle by watching step dancers down at the local ceili. No, it was television that got her.

"When I was a little kid, my folks loved bluegrass stuff," she says. Consequently, the Ivers family always wound up watching "Hee-Haw," which Eileen laughingly refers to as "that funny, culturally stimulating show.

"I remember they used to have red, white and blue fiddles," she says. "When I was 4 or 5, I was watching this, and I loved the colors of it. I started bugging my mom: 'I want to play fiddle.' And she goes: 'No, no, no. Play piano. I want you to play piano.'

"And I said, 'No, I want to play fiddle!' " she says, imitating the whine of a childish tantrum. "I drove her mad with this."

Her insistence paid off, though, especially after she began studying with the great Irish fiddler Martin Mulvihill. As a teacher, Mulvihill didn't just help Ivers improve her technique; he also instilled an understanding of the spirit of the music, so the young fiddler could more completely comprehend what she was playing.

"He shared the music in such a great way that you really got the sense of the music from him," she says. "When you learn from great people like that, who understand it and can give it to you in that kind of way, it's great. You can't get any better than that."

Growing up in America, Ivers had the best of both worlds, because she was to travel regularly to Ireland and "soak up" music from her counterparts over there. Being in the old country also made it easier for her to see how having a sense of place affects the music's sound.

"In Ireland, you still find the regional styles," she says. "There are young players even today that are playing purely in, say, for example, an East Clare fiddle style. Or Donegal fiddling style. And they're just kids who mightn't even want to leave Ireland."

By contrast, says Ivers, there is no "Bronx style" of fiddling. But being in America has advantages of its own. "New York is, obviously, more a melting pot, so you're going to get different influences and that kind of thing," she says. "But I think that's good."

New York's musical diversity plays a large part in shaping the sound of Ivers' current album, "Crossing the Bridge." Besides updating traditional tunes by adding a bit of bluegrass twang to the phrasing in the amusingly titled "polka.com," for instance, Ivers also broadens her music by working bits of jazz, flamenco and African music into the mix.

In some ways, her collaborations with African percussionist Kweyao Agyapon are the most startling aspect of the album -- not because African and Irish music make an odd blend, but because the two flavors fit together so naturally.

Ivers credits the chemistry to the fact that both Irish and African dance music make heavy use of triplet rhythms and involve a similar sense of syncopation. "I remember when we first started playing around the New York area with the great African percussionists," she says. "We couldn't believe how the music fit together so well. It was just natural.

"It's fun, too. When we play live, you see that it really moves people to get up and dance. That, to me, is exciting, because at the heart of it, it is dance music."

Yet as broad as her musical influences may be, the essential Irishness of Ivers' playing is never lost. And to her, that's proof that she's a musician in the Irish tradition, no matter what she plays.

"In any music, it's very important just to keep growing and taking in other influences," she says. "Collaborating with other musicians of different kinds of cultures or genres of music -- that is very interesting to me, because you're able to stretch [the music] out there and create new and exciting sounds from that.

"But the essence is still going to be Irish, because if you are steeped very much in the tradition, you're not going to ever stray from it that much. It's a part of you, like walking or breathing. It's in you."

Eileen Ivers

What: Plays fiddle with the Chieftains

When: 7: 30 tonight

Where: Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, 1212 Cathedral St.

Tickets: $38

Call: 410-783-8000 Pub Date: 3/10/99