Quick Facts
Biography
Fiona Joy Hawkins is an Australian composer, vocalist, and pianist, who uses the stage-name Fiona Joy. She was born in Cessnock, New South Wales, to a creative family, and trained as a classical pianist.
Early life
Hawkins was born in Cessnock, New South Wales and raised in both Newcastle and Tamworth. She first began to study the piano at a young age, composing short pieces for the piano before she was a teenager. She trained at the Tamworth Conservatorium of Music under tutor Ursula Bakker, where she showed early signs of musical talent. Her early music teachers included Es Clarke, Ursula Bakker, and Maureen Newell.
Musical career
Her first album, Portrait of a Waterfall, charted at No. 1 on the New Age Reporter (NAR) World Charts in 2005. Her classical release, Angel Above My Piano, earned the NAR Lifestyle Music Award for Best Piano Album of the Year for 2006. She has been a finalist multiple times in both the Musicoz Awards in the jazz and classical categories, and the Los Angeles Music Awards in the New Age/Ambient Instrumental category. She has also been interviewed regarding trends in the use of high-end pianos and the potential changes new instruments make to a musician's compositions.
Her collaborations have included an album with Will Ackerman as producer. Her influences include George Winston, Michael Nyman, Chopin, and Mendelssohn. The Sydney Morning Herald said of her in 2007 that she "ranks among the world's best in her genre, but struggles for recognition in her home country" of Australia, largely due to the lack of recognition given to the genre by Australian music critics until she won the 2006 ZMR award. Hawkins is the first Australian to place in the top ten on the ZMR chart and the first to win a ZMR award.
In 2008 Hawkins was the 2008 MusicOz winner for Best Jazz or Classical Artist. In 2009 she won Album of the Year, Best Contemporary Instrumental Album, and Best Instrumental Album by Zone Music Reporter for her album Blue Dream. The album was also a finalist for an ARIA Music Award. In 2013 Hawkins was a finalist in the Best Live Performance, Best New Age Album, and Best New Age Song categories at the Independent Music Awards.
Her album 600 Years in a Moment (2013) draws on Celtic music from her family traditions as well as vocal and instrumental performances intended to represent Mongolia, Hungary, China, Africa, Tibet, Ireland, the Middle East, and Native America. She played a Stuart & Sons piano and was recorded in Newcastle (Australia), in Vermont at Ackerman's Imaginary Road Studios, Los Angeles, New York, Bremen and Portland, Maine, and Halifax, Nova Scotia. Featured musicians include cellist Eugene Friesen (Paul Winter Consort), bassist Tony Levin (Paul McCartney and Peter Gabriel), drummer Jeff Haynes (Pat Metheney), Charlie Bisharat (Yanni), violinist and vocalist Rebecca Daniel (Australian Chamber Orchestra), as well as guitarists Will Ackerman and Todd Boston. The album was awarded the Best Instrumental Album – Piano at the 2013 ZMR Music Awards. In 2014, Hawkins and Will Ackerman produced the album By a Wire by Jennifer Defrayne with Hawkins assisting on piano and lyics. In 2014 her song Grace appeared on the compilation album Winds of Samsara, which reached No. 1 on the Billboard New Age albums chart. and won the Grammy Award for Best New Age Album.
During tours of China, Hawkins was labeled the "Piano Angel".
Hawkins is a painter whose works have been exhibited at the Butterflies Gallery in Pokolbin as well as internationally.
Discography
- Portrait of a Waterfall (2005)
- Angel Above My Piano (2006)
- Ice – Piano Slightly Chilled (2008)
- Blue Dream (2008)
- Music for Massage (Compilation) (2010)
- Christmas Joy (2011)
- Live at the Q with the Blue Dream Ensemble (2012)
- Sensual Journeys (2012)
- 600 Years in a Moment (2013)
- Signature – Solo (2015)
- Signature – Synchronicity (2016)
Digital Only
- Music for Funerals
- Music for Weddings
- Music for Sex