Dale Kavanagh was born in 1958 in Canada. She studied at Acadia University, Dalhousie University with Carol van Feggelen, the University of Toronto with Eli Kassner and Banff Center School of the Arts in Canada. She graduated with honors. She has also studied with Oscar Ghiglia at the Musik Akademie der Stadt Basel in Switzerland.

In the late 1980s Dale Kavanagh was a top prize-winner in many international competitions such as Gargnano Competition in Italy, Segovia Competition in Spain, Scandinavian Competition in Finland and Neuchatel Competiton in Switzerland

Dale Kavanagh is one of the guitar world's most gifted female guitarists. She now performs internationally as a soloist and is also in the Amadeus Guitar Duo with the German guitarist Thomas Kirchhoff. She is a regular recitalist and often gives master classes at music festivals in Canada, Argentina, China, Thailand, Turkey, Poland, Germany, Greece, Holland, Sweden, Hungary, Mexico, England and the United States and has given more than 700 concerts around the world.

Many composers have written works for Dale Kavanagh such as Carlo Domeniconi, Roland Dyens, Jaime M. Zenamon, Stephen Dodgson, Stephen Funk-Pearson, Bruce Shavers, Christian Jost and Harald Genzmer.

Dale Kavanagh has recorded 12 CDs which have received superlative reviews in international magazines such as Acoustic Guitar, Classical Guitar Magazine, Fono-Forum, Hi-Fi-Vision, Gendai Guitar, Gitarre & Laute, La Cahir de la Guitare, Musikblatt, Staccato, Soundboard Magazine, Gitar och Luta and many others.

Dale Kavanagh is currently teaching guitar at the Musikhochschule in Detmold, Germany and is also "Musician in Residence" at Acadia University in Canada.