New Age Music World

Posts Tagged ‘Fiona Joy Hawkins’

The ZMR Music Award Winners were announced on March 14 2010.  Many of the artists we write about were category qualifiers, nominees, or chosen winners in specific categories, and it is always good news when outstanding artists get recognition they deserve.

Every musician in our genre has produced some outstanding music this year,and we have enjoyed writing reviews about many of these musicians at NewAgeMusic.nu & NewAgeMusicWorld.Com this past year. 

In fact, some were recognized in our own NewAgeMusic.nu Best Albums of 2009.

There is no denying that every musician has made a significant contribution to our beloved genre and in our minds, has already become a winner.  We enjoy writing about these deserving individuals and look forward to writing even more  about our featured musicians in the days ahead.  B.T. Fasmer and I would like to congratulate everyone !

Our listing of Qualifying Artists we feature here, along with their websites can be found by clicking on the ZMR News Tab located at the top, or by clicking on the provided links in each review or interview.

Visit zonemusicreporter.com to see the complete  Category Awards List  and then be sure to read our NewAgeMusic.nu Best Albums of 2009  right here  or in the above Music News tab above.

Expect this website to bring you even more about the musicians we feature here.  Below are the individuals we have been writing about who received top honors at ZMR for 2009.

                                                                          Fiona Joy Hawkins 

                                                                          Blue Dream Album

                *Album of the Year *Best Contemporary Instrumental *Best Contemporary Instrumental / Piano

                      David Wahler                          Michael Brant DeMaria                      Michael Brant Demaria

                      Antiquus Album                      Ocean Album                                     Siyotanka Album

                     *Best New Artist                      *Best Ambient  & *Best Relaxation     *Best Native American

                      Michael Stribling                          Bruce Michell                                   9  Muses

                      The Promise Album                      New Earth Goddess Album               Feel to Heal Album

                     *Best Electronic                             *Best Neo Classical                          *Best Chill / Groove

Again we invite our readers to visit each individual artist website by our links provided within every review.  You can find their individual reviews by scrolling down our main pages or by clicking on their names in the right hand module to visit their dedicated page here at NewAgeMusicWorld.Com.

The ZMR News Tab at top lists every qualifying musician we have written about this year at NewAgeMusic.nu & NewAgeMusicWorld.Com.  Every artist has a home here, and we will be posting more about them in the future.

Fiona Joy Hawkins has just released a YouTube video with excerpts of her recent concert performance at the Q Theatre in Sydney Australia.  In this concert, Fiona is featured showcasing her talents as a pianist, and sings soft vocals.  The entire supporting cast of music professionals on the video are Rebecca Daniels playing violin and vocals, Trish McMeakin on cello and Andy Busuttil on percussion, clarinet, and reed instrument, saxillo.

I have watched this new video several times now, and found it gives an excellent sampling of her classic material with several excerpts from her recent Blue Dream album.  Fiona is also one of many currently under consideration with Zone Music Reporter’s awards ceremony taking place later in February and March. 

Speaking of the ZMR awards, we have a special post ready for this weekend displaying 20 qualifying artists and their albums currently under consideration that we have written album reviews on this past year at NewAgeMusic.nu & NewAgeMusicWorld.com.  We invite you to check back for a nice story about the ZMR awards ceremony this weekend.  You can go to zonemusicreporter.com for the complete details here.

The second YouTube video features Fiona on a popular Australian morning show in a live televised solo performance of Contemplating from her Blue Dream album.  You may read my review and then visit fionajoyhawkins.com to find out more about this music professional. 

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.

Fiona Joy Hawkins is the noteworthy artist I would like to highlight today achieving 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.  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.