Jon Fitzgerald : Represented Artist
Date of Birth: 19th July, 1954
Jonathan Fitzgerald is a classical guitarist, conductor and composer. Having obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree majoring in Psychology he studied for a Bachelor of Music at the University of Queensland, and graduated with First Class Honours. He studied with John Nickson, and while he has had some contact with other composers, such as Philip Bracanin and Colin Brumby, considers himself to be largely self-taught.
Between 1970 and 1982 Fitzgerald divided his time between freelance performance, composition and arranging in a variety of genres, and also held part-time teaching positions at the Darling Downs Institute of Advanced Education, Downlands College and Concordia College (Toowoomba), and the University of Queensland at various times between 1979 and 1982. In 1983 he took up a position as fulltime lecturer in music, teaching guitar, music education, composition and music history at the Northern Rivers College of Advanced Education and the University of New England, Northern Rivers. He continued to perform, arrange and compose, and also assumed the conductorship of the Lismore Youth Orchestra and the Northern Rivers Combined Choir. In 1994 he accepted a position at Southern Cross University.
Fitzgerald has written many compositions for guitar, either solo or in combination with other instruments, orchestra or voice, and also pieces for string trio, jazz quartet, concert band, and choir. His String Trio was awarded the University of Queensland's Percy Brier Memorial Prize, and in 1987 he was a prizewinner in the Yamaha/Australian Association of Band and Orchestra Directors Competition with his composition for concert band, Sea Shanty.
Biography provided by the composer