OUR FEATURED ARTIST IS FIONA JOY HAWKINS:
Fiona Joy Hawkins is best known for her romantic, melodic songs and lush arrangements. A prolific composer, she has always been interested in creating music that evokes images, emotions and tells stories.
She is inspired by Mendelssohn, Chopin, Max Richter and Michael Nyman. She is an Australian pianist, composer and singer. She enjoys and regularly tours China and the USA and is also a member of the Contemporary instrumental group FLOW (Fiona Joy, Lawrence Blatt, Jeff Oster, Will Ackerman).
Fiona Joy is well-known for ‘Grace,’ her song on a Grammy Winning album in 2014, and for her extensive catalogue produced by Will Ackerman (Founder, Windham Hill Records).
In 2016, she won two categories of the Independent Music Awards at the Lincoln Centre in New York and has been awarded Best Piano Album by International Radio (ZMR Awards) for several of her albums. Nominated alongside Pete Seeger for Best LIVE Performance Album in the Independent Music Awards, Fiona was an ARIA Finalist in Australia in 2008.
Fiona works with Australian piano maker Stuart and Sons, and has several albums with Blue Coast Records (content partners with Sony Music for hi-resolution releases) Blue Coast owner/producer Cookie Marenco says, “Fiona’s melodic solo piano and masterful performances are the perfect music to debut the kind of clarity double DSD audio brings to the home listener.’
Living in a small village of 830 people in NSW Australia, Fiona has toured and played around the world at venues like New York’s Carnegie (Weill Hall), the New Orleans Jazz Museum, Sydney Opera House (MusicOz Awards), a live concert on Echoes/NPR Radio, has accompanied Deepak Chopra in NY, Mason and Hamlin Piano Festival in LA, The Joan Sutherland Performing Arts Centre Sydney, Glasshouse Port Macquarie, Sydney Women’s International Jazz Festival, Grammy Museum in Los Angeles, and Halifax Entertainment Centre amongst others.
Producer of 4 of Fiona’s albums, Will Ackerman, founder of both Windham Hill Records and Imaginary Road Studios, embraced and encouraged Fiona’s music years ago, stating: Fiona’s Blue Dream album was the most ambitious project of my entire career and resulted in one of the most remarkable collaborations this genre has ever known. Blue Dream is unique and I’m as proud of it as anything I’ve ever worked on in my 35-year career of GRAMMY® Awards and Gold/Platinum records.
As a collaborator, Fiona has worked with Will Ackerman, Lawrence Blatt, T-Bone Wolk (Hall & Oates), Tony Levin (Peter Gabriel, Dire Straits), Jeff Haynes (Pat Metheny), Eugene Friesen (Paul Winter Consort), Heather Rankin, Charlie Bisharat (Shadowfax), Rebecca Daniel (ACO), Jeff Oster and many others. In 2014, she and Ackerman co-produced the successful debut album of Jennifer DeFrayne, who won Best New Artist in the 2015 ZMR Awards for her album By A Wire.
When not recording or touring, Fiona is busy directing the entrepreneurial side of her music business, an effort which is crucial to the success of every independent artist. She manages her growing record label, Little Hartley Music, and promotes Fiona Joy Jewellery, her new line offering the upscale Swarovsky crystal-adorned bracelets and foot jewellery that she wears while performing barefooted in concert.
When not on the road, Fiona escapes to her peaceful home in a small rural village in Australia.
“One of the brightest lights in contemporary instrumental music, Fiona Joy is poised to move into stardom.” ~ Will Ackerman, Founder of Windham Hill Records
Fiona’s new album is “The Lightness of Dark” with Rebecca Daniel.
This is an ethereal and collaborative journey into the depths of loss, mourning and recovery. Recorded in Australia for Piano, String Quartet (Kanimbla Quartet) and voice, the album focuses on the way forward and the exploration of lightness within the dark. We all experience loss at some time in our lives, loss of health, friendship, a pet, lost youth or the loss of a loved one. When real life becomes art, experiences can be shared, learned from and resonate with others in similar situations. This album invites the listener tofind the beauty in the sadness and move forward in a positive way.
‘There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in’ -Leonard Cohen
CONTACT/Website: LittleHartleyMusic.com.au
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Global Media Relations: Beth Hilton, The B Company: [email protected] (310-560-8390)
General, Sales and Booking Info: [email protected]
Online Offical Artist Website: http://www.fionajoy.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/fionajoyhawkinsmusic
SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/album/6bsketAtyg6m3ay0iRBFuA?si=SERF-L9gSviUE6UPsXCxPg
YouTube: www.Youtube.com/fionajoy *
Twitter @fionajoymusic
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fionajoymusic/
Discography:
- PORTRAIT OF A WATERFALL
- ANGEL ABOVE MY PIANO
- ICE – PIANO SLIGHTLY CHILLED
- BLUE DREAM CD AND SA-CD
- MUSIC FOR MASSAGE
- CHRISTMAS JOY CD AND SA-CD
- LIVE at THE Q with the Blue Dream Ensemble
- SENSUAL JOURNEYS
- Signature – Solo (Blue Coast Records) DSD, SACD and CD
- Signature – Synchronicity – CD, DSD
- Into the Mist – DSD, SACD, CD
- Story of Ghosts – DSD SACD CD