Christchurch
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Bio
Fiona Pears Full Biography
Violinist and composer Fiona Pears started performing as a soloist with orchestras at the age of twelve. After performing and recording internationally for many years she has now returned to live in her home town Christchurch, New Zealand
| Fiona started the violin at the age of five after hearing a performance by Carl Pini where she fell in love with the sound of the instrument. In an interview with the Otago Daily Times she said, “Apparently I stamped my feet and cried ‘I want a violin’, and I got one in my Santa stocking that year!” Her first public performance was at the age of six where she won first prize in a local competition. |
By the age of twelve, Fiona was performing concertos with local orchestras on both piano and violin. In the same year she went on to lead the Christchurch Youth Orchestra and co-lead the New Zealand Secondary Schools Symphony Orchestra where she won two national music competitions, one in piano and the other in violin. Fiona then joined the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra at the age of fourteen and has appeared as a soloist with them several times over the years.
By the time she was eighteen, Fiona had formed an interest of many different kinds of music and started to explore Jazz, Gypsy, Latin and Celtic styles. She spent several years playing in a swing jazz group which recorded for Radio New Zealand and appeared at festivals nationwide. During this time Fiona formed a love of teaching and has a passion for teaching all ages and levels many different styles of music.
In her early twenties, Fiona started to write her own music. She wanted to create something fresh and to fuse together the styles of music she loved to play. Since then Fiona hasn’t looked back. She has gone on to release seven CDs and two DVDs of her own music.
When living in the UK, Fiona composed and arranged the music for her performance with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic orchestra and has gone on to write and arrange music for recording artists such as Hayley Westenra, Libera, Aled Jones and Lee Mead. She was also asked to arrange and perform her own version of Schindler’s List for BBC television and her music videos have been played on Classic FM TV in the UK and Europe.
In recent years Fiona has toured extensively and has performed and recorded with artists such as Dave Dobbyn, Hayley Westenra, Bic Runga, Heather Nova and the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra. She has also opened for artists such as Tony Bennett, Ottmar Liebert and the late Victor Bourge.
Quotes
‘Banish from your minds all preconceptions of orthodoxy in the world of the violin. Fiona Pears has largely rewritten the script’. The New Zealand Herald 2012
‘Feeling, is easily one of the most exquisite pieces of music I’ve heard in a long time – it pours through you and enters your body at a cellular level, so achingly poignant you’d have to be inhuman not to feel its effect’. Feeling review, The Christchurch Press 2012
‘Pears passion for music impossible to resist’ The Christchurch Press 2011
‘The audience couldn’t help but smile as we recognised that here was a musician who not only has an amazingly accomplished technique, but she’s also up on stage having a ball’.The Nelson Mail 2009
‘That Pears’ playing is outstanding throughout goes without saying, outrageously brilliant and dazzling in her technique, Pears’ love of what she is doing shines through every note’. Fire and Light review, The Christchurch Press 2009
‘She produced some of the most fantastic, beautiful music I have heard played’. Marlborough Express 2008
‘Throughout the evening, Fiona played with breathtaking sensitivity and beauty’.Wanganui Chronicle 2008
‘It left audience and performers breathless and will be remembered by all as a truly splendid night’. The Christchurch Press 2007
‘Nothing short of brilliant’ The Christchurch Press 2006
Teaching Info
If I am working with a beginner I love to get them playing as soon as possible. Like – in the first lesson! A basic theory plan is worked at, and I enjoy finding out what they love about music/violin and the styles of music they like to listen to also. From there I sometimes write compositions for each student based on what they need and love playing. I am also happy working through a plan to sit exams or if the student is a little nervous about doing a full exam I will organise a mock exam to get them slowly and gently used to the process.