Posts Tagged ‘Fiona Joy Hawkins’

Ambient Visions has posted a very nice interview with Fiona Joy Hawkins.  

And while you are at it, why not check out John P. Olsen’s reviews of Fiona Joy Hawkins’ two most recent albums on NewAgeMusicWorld.com?

Australian composer and pianist Fiona Joy Hawkins has 4 award winning projects at present.  Her most recent Blue Dream album is successful in placing an exclamation mark after her name when recognizing Fiona’s outstanding abilities and claim to fame in international status.

Fiona’s many achievements include charting at # 1 on World New Age radio charts spanning 9 countries, Best Piano album in the NAR Lifestyle Music Awards in 2006, and as finalist in 2 genres in the LA Music Awards in 2007.  She also won the Classical / Jazz category in the Music OZ Awards in 2008. after being a finalist 5 times and ranked finalist in 4 categories including Album of the Year in the NAR Awards in 2009.

Ice :  Serve Slightly Chilled is innovative, dynamic and bold, confidently stated by yours truly.  With an inventor’s approach, Fiona’s compositions are patently administered on her Steinway Concert piano as a new musical prototype. 

It is on the Ice album where this patent innovation in New Age, Contemporary piano begins, charting an adventurous course in the way a musician blends Classical New Age, Contemporary, Chill Out, Jazz, World and Rock.  What impressed me the most was a momentary departure from her exceptional, yet more Contemporary albums that won her claim to fame.  Portions of the Rock overtones present in this album challenge some of our basic assumptions of the term Piano music.  Another concept is a transition in the way Rock music has been perceived in the past, creating a new approach in the way we view the term Rock music. 

With an inventor’s approach, Fiona’s compositions are patently administered on her Steinway Concert piano as a new musical prototype.

The 10 songs are issued titles with an icy thermodynamic theme, setting the spine chilling mood in motion by providing a mid tempo application of Classic New Age Chill.  The song Iced Rain discloses a trademark Fiona Joy Hawkins piano arrangement, yet grants an exclusive design concept by applying a mixture of genres and unique instrumentation.  While Aboriginal Didgeridoo echoes an indigenous woodwind call to the wild, ebony and ivory piano keys appear to reach an entire range of octaves to establish a new dimension in piano music.  Thunderous percussion unites with electrified guitar to diagram the upbeat momentum for this ground breaking discovery by commingling Classic piano and Rock music into a single entity.

The Ice project discloses more than just an improvement made to a prior existing musical product.  Fiona takes an inventor’s approach in redefining the fundamental basics of the way we perceive Piano and Rock music.

Cloud Chill is a song innovation that starts out as a meteorological weather advisory on the horizon when native Didgeridoo once again reverbs an ancient voice into the past, present, and future.  Fiona’s epic design in piano rhythms then integrate with electric guitar, blending into musical matter cool enough to penetrate what we term Rock music. 

Her novel invention in composing first finds a crack, pressurizes and then expands, breaking the barrier of Rock music from a familiar musical genre, shattering what was once a large form of music into tiny little pieces, thereby creating a new music entity. 

The Ice project discloses more than just an improvement made to a prior existing musical product.  Fiona takes an inventor’s approach in redefining the fundamental basics of the way we perceive Piano and Rock music.

The 2 songs I just described titled Iced Rain and Cloud Chill are playing on our Stars Radio so that you may hear this invention in music for yourself.  You may also read  my review of her latest album titled Novel Blue Dream and then discover the online art gallery and music website of fionajoyhawkins.com

Picture copyright Bigstockphoto.com

It seems that few instruments can compare to a piano for personally illustrating the emotion and feeling of what an artist wants to share with another. The piano is a divine instrument to play or to simply listen while others perform. I am certain many readers like myself have also had the opportunity to play the piano as younger adults either willingly or unwillingly under the guidance of their parents, which ended with varying degrees of success. The noteworthy artist I would like to highlight today has achieved unbridled success playing the piano, reaching the number 1 spot in World New Age radio charts across 9 countries, achieving the Best Piano Album in the NAR lifestyle music awards in 2006, and winning the classical / jazz category in the Music OZ Awards for 2008. Accomplishments even her parents never would have dreamed possible.

Fiona Joy Hawkins has also received multiple nominations as finalist in classical jazz categories in 2007 and 2009 in multiple genres, among her respectable achievements as an Australian born composer and pianist. Her most recent 2008 Blue Dream album on the Little Hartley Music label, described as world fusion piano, puts the listener into a reflective relaxed state with many refined variations ranging from the poignant quiet moments of thought, to moments with varying rhythms, styles and many orchestration phases in the 22 song album which merge together skillfully. While already widely recognized, she hopes this album will break into international markets.
my favorite track 9 blends powerful, yet soft vocals, only to crescendo into a moving inspirational piece, blending into the next novel chapter.

One can consider the 22 songs contained in this album as chapters in a book, that after reading each chapter, the next phase of this story becomes more revealing when finishing all verses while working your way towards the final chapter.

my favorite track 9 blends powerful, yet soft vocals, only to crescendo into a moving inspirational piece, blending into the next novel chapter.

All song chapters and illustrations in this book will hold your interest by preventing you from putting the book down, and my favorite track 9 blends powerful, yet soft vocals, only to crescendo into a moving inspirational piece, blending into the next novel chapter. Farther in the storyline Track 12 opens with a classic piano solo interlude as accompanying vocals add definition, and as the plot thickens, additional momentum begins to increase the readers awareness of a chance encounter, as additional instrumentals and rhythms divulge increasing amounts of dialog of this narrative.

Recorded and produced by Grammy Award winner Will Ackerman, plus an addition of many other talented musicians to their credit, who solo and accompany Fiona Joy Hawkins, influence the beauty and refinement of the album, without ever exceeding the award winning pianist intentions and the message she masterfully portrays with the 88 ebony and ivory keys provided for her on a Steinway concert piano.

Besides her professional career as a pianist, Fiona Joy Hawkins is also a painter with her own online art gallery, where paintings can be purchased, along with her 4 available CDs. The novel website to visit is Fionajoyhawkins.com.