Fiona Joy Hawkins is a New Age composer and pianist whose music crosses genres from classical to world fusion. She is also a mother, a painter, and a woman who is immersed in following her passion for music. Fiona released her first album Portrait of a Waterfall in 2005. It went to 1 on the New Age Radio (NAR) Charts, made the top five in the MusicOz Awards for the classical genre, and was a finalist for Best Piano Album at the 2005 NAR Lifestyle Music Awards. Encouraged by her bit of success, Fiona followed with Angel Above My Piano, which won Best Piano Album at the NAR Lifestyle Music Awards in 2006. Her third album, ICE: Piano Slightly Chilled also rose to 1 on New Age Reporter's Top 100 New Age/Ambient/World Radio/Internet Airwaves Chart, and also won a Best Dance Dub/Club NAR Award in 2008. She also won Australia's 2008 MusicOz award for Best Jazz or Classical Artist. Blue Dream debuted at 1 on the NAR charts, setting a new record for highest debut on that chart.
2010 has been and extraordinary year already as Blue Dream has continued to break chart records and won Album of the year, Best Piano Album and Best Contemporary Instrumental Album in the Zone Music Awards. Blue Dream was also an ARIA Finalist in 2009 for Best World Music Album in Australia. Fiona's music is both thematic and melodic. With a keen eye on film, she has always been interested in creating music that evokes images and tells a story, so it may come as no surprise that she's a prolific painter who has been exhibiting since 1997. She incorporates original manuscripts of her music on the canvas, to create bold colorful mixed media abstracts that enable one to see and feel her music. "The idea of synchronicity has always intrigued me; colors, ideas and emotions all have corresponding sounds," said Fiona. "I believe in the power of music as a source of inspiration and a way of reaching people, and, it seems I can transfer a musical quality through my art to the canvas." In addition to four albums Portrait of a Waterfall, Angel Above My Piano, ICE: Slightly Chilled and Blue Dream - Fiona has released three albums specifically designed for the burgeoning iTunes market: Music for Funerals, Music For Weddings and more. She explains, "I started to notice that specific tracks kept getting downloaded, in particular Ciney's Theme (Wedding March), and I realized that people are sometimes after purposeful music, whether it be for a wedding or a funeral. These three download-only albums are doing extremely well; in fact, Ciney's Theme is now my #1 downloaded track on iTunes." With the recent release of Blue Dream as both CD and SA-CD, Fiona is busy enjoying new fans, added performance commitments and the interest of international music critics. Best of all, she's doing what she loves most, diving into composing her next album, tentatively titled "600 Years in a Moment."
Visit artist website at http://fionajoyhawkins.com.au/
