Fiona Joy Hawkins
// Composer & PianistFIONA JOY HAWKINS is an award-winning composer, pianist, and singer from NSW, Australia. She has achieved international acclaim and awards worldwide including #1 on the World New Age Radio Charts across nine countries for several of her albums. In 2009, Fiona Joy won the ZMR Album of the Year, Best Piano Album, and Best Contemporary Instrumental album as well as being an ARIA Award Finalist in Australia. Her albums “Portrait Of A Waterfall” (2005), “Angel Above My Piano” (2006), “ICE: Piano Slightly Chilled” (2007), “Blue Dream” (2008), “Christmas Joy” (2010), “Live at the Q” (2011), “Sensual Journeys” (2012), and “600 Years in a Moment” (2013) are all available from Little Hartley Music.
Website: www.fionajoy.com
Photo: Fiona Joy Hawkins
Interview:
“MUSIC, FORGIVENESS, LOVE”
Forgiveness and love come from within, they grow from the seeds we plant and they stem from our heart. It’s from nourishment and nurture that they flourish and enlighten us. We all have these emotions and qualities but as life and hardships take their toll, the ability to love and forgive may become a forgotten practice or one that has faded over time.
Music has a powerful ability to break down walls, to open communication, and to allow a listener to find peace within. When we contemplate we dig deep and we ponder the things that drive us, trouble us, or leave us unfulfilled. We don’t listen to the subject matter of the song in the way the writer intended, but rather, we apply it to our own lives. How often have you heard a song that brings you to tears? The ability to feel something and be moved is a wonderful thing and there in lies the magic of music and its full healing capacity.
The nature of the music we listen to is important to this process. Not all music is positive and not all music leaves an impact that is valuable. If we listen to Heavy Metal, swearing, abusive content, or vulgarity then that is what we absorb and reflect. However, on the flip side, if we listen to music that holds love and joy then we take happiness with us and it cheers us up. If we listen to music that allows us to think or contemplate then we dig down deep within our own psyche and learn important lessons about our surrounds and ourselves. Its as if the music becomes a conduit to our own reflection.
I have always advocated that Instrumental, Ambient/New Age Music, is far more powerful to us in our everyday lives as it doesn’t impose its own suggestion on us. Ambient music gives us a chance to react and take something away that is self-driven. The composer suggests a subject matter, but the listener interprets it in their own way. Creatively and emotionally, we are enabled by allowing music to touch us.
A significant value of music is that there is no language barrier; we all understand musical intention regardless of age, gender, or nationality. Music binds us and gives us one voice. Music has often been called the universal language for this reason. During my own musical journey as a composer, I have found the process of love and forgiveness to be an integral part of my life. Some people will put pen to paper, I sit at the piano and write my thoughts as music.
It’s a form of synchronicity, I take a subject matter and turn it into a piece of music. Often I explore my personal journey and pour my emotion of the moment into the music. There is sadness in beauty and beauty in sadness, and so the listener is able to take something different than what was originally given by the composer during the process of writing. The concept of contemplation and self-awareness through ambient music is explained by this phenomenon. I can’t imagine life without music, it allows us to connect to the world around us. When words leave us, music begins.
“Forgiveness and Love come from within, they grow from the seeds we plant and they stem from our heart.”
– Fiona Joy Hawkins, Composer & Pianist
