Thomas Fitzgerald

Recordings

Chika Soundtrack CD released

The music for CHIKA was composed by Thomas Fitzgerald, with one exquisite work, the Koto Solo by Satsuki Odamura.

This unusual collaboration of instruments featuring Satsuki Odamura on koto and bass koto, Anne Norman’s shakuhachi, Toshinori Sakamoto's wadaiko and Thomas Fitzgerald playing acoustic and electric violin and keyboards, blends live music and pre recorded acoustic and electronic sounds with a unique result. It is the sum of these myriad combinations of a surreal reality that have become CHIKA's musical world.

"Chika" by Cate Shaw released

"Chika" is the vocal version of the 'Chika Chika Cha Cha' from the CHIKA soundtrack. It is available through iTunes and as an MP3 download through CD Baby

Spirit

Composed by Tom Fitzgerald, performed with One Earth Orchestra
"SPIRIT" was composed as a Celebration of the Spirit of the Yarra River in Melbourne, Australia. It is based on a concept of interdependency of times and cultures past, present and future. The Yarra River is a meeting place that transcends all cultures embracing our traditional mythologies, stories and gatherings and our own late 20th Century kaleidoscopic dreamings. Inspired by this rich collage and further by the "Sun, Moon and Stars" Aboriginal stories, the Music brings together Opera, Rock, Jazz, World and Classical elements to create an expressive and exciting original work.

Short cuts : 12 - Chitter chatter (Tom Fitzgerald 2003)

Julia Ryder, cello; Roslyn Dunlop, clarinet
Performance June 2003, Side On Cafe, Sydney
Recorded/Broadcast by "New Music Australia", ABC Radio National
ABC Classic FM Recording (Australian Music Centre)

Platypus Dreaming

A collection of timeless Dreamtime Stories and Singing of the Wurundjeri Aboriginal People, Yarra Yarra Tribe, of Victoria. These are told and performed by Aboriginal Elder, Murrundindi.
Produced by Tom Fitzgerald

String of Pearls : Deborah Conway : Tom Fitzgerald--violin

Wave : Rosie Westbrook : Tom Fitzgerald--violin

Billy Miller Victoria : Tom Fitzgerald--violin

peter schaefer ensemble : Tom Fitzgerald--violin / string quartet leader

Heliotrope : Geoff Pressing : Tom Fitzgerald--Soundtracks and Music

Commissioned by Pacific Strategies Multimedia, La Trobe University

Compositions

Grants & Awards

Pa - Best Original Music Award, 2002 Sienna International Festival. Best short film at Venice Film Festival 2002
Midsummer Nights Dream - Melbourne Theatre Critics Award for Best Musical Composition & Direction. 1998
Turtle World - Film score nominated for an Academy Award in 1999
Chika - The ABC Radio National program of “Chika” was a finalist in the Radio Feature, Documentary or Broadcast Special category of the 2004 Walkley Awards for Excellence in Journalism.
ABC Radio Arts/Australia Council New Media Artist-in-Residence for 2005
Peggy Glanville Hicks Composer Fellowship 2005

Associated Sites

SBS Peace Song Tapestries

Thomas Fitzgerald's current project with SBS Radio. Dr Tom invites the World’s Children to create and sing Peace Songs from every nation on earth – to form a music and soundscape Tapestry.

Sonic Boom
Shower Songs

Shower Songs is a radiophonic musical composition created during the Thomas Fitzgerald's residency with the ABC in 2005. This annual New Media Arts residency is supported by the Australia Council for the Arts and hosted by the ABC. This work is multi-faceted and multi-dimensional in its intention and nature. On one level it is a celebration of the sensuous sonic beauty of water in our physical world. On another level the work explores the deeper cultural and metaphysical changes that often occur almost invisibly in our modern world. Who has time to sing in the shower any more? And whilst expressing ourselves through song is precious, so too is water itself.

Wings of Music

Associated Artists/Collegues

Adrian Robinson - Poet
Anne Norman - Shakuhachi
Cate Shaw - Vocalist
Daniel Blinkhorn - Composer and Intermedia artist
Donna Jackson - Writer, Theatre Maker, Director
Hoola - a Sydney based Hawaiian-style string band featuring Graham Griffith, Jenny Griffith,Tony Burkys and Peter Moloney
Lycia Trouton - Canadian Sculptor
Jennings Carmichael - Australian Poet
Marcus Van Camp - Singer/Songwriter
Mayu Kanamori - Documentary photographer
Peter Sych - Software developer
Siobhan McHugh - Oral historian, writer, documentary maker
Satsuki Odamura - Koto
Toshinori Sakamoto - Wadaiko

TF Online

Australian Sound Design Project
University of Melbourne Music Library
Wikipedia