About David Fitzgerald Woodwind & Reeds
David Fitzgerald Woodwind & Reeds
15th August 2018
SAXOPHONE & FLUTE LESSONS (A JOURNEY IN MUSIC)
My career has combined performing, composing & teaching as well as being something of a journey through various musical environments and genres.
I left home at the age of 15 to study at the prestigious Royal Marines School of Music in Deal, Kent, where I boarded for three years. I completed my studies and then served as principal flute & saxophone player within HM Band of the Royal Marines throughout the world & principally in the Far East (where I was stationed for two years, initially at HMS Terror and then with 3rd Commando Brigade). On returning to the UK I was a member of Plymouth Group Band and then CTC Lympstone. It was at this time that I started to play with various bands in and around the Exeter region (notably the Maurice Price Showband & Christian progressive rock band Pilgrimage). I left the band service in 1975 to follow a career beyond the world of military music. Nevertheless, I remain extremely grateful for the years and the friendships that I still value very highly during those formative years within the finest military band in the world.
After further years of working within the musical world of popular & world cultures, recording & touring with various bands including 60’s soul legend Geno Washington & The Ram Jam Band (signed to DJM/Dick James Music) & 70's disco chart band The Chequers (signed to Creole Records – two top 20 hits). I also spent much of my energy working as a session musician in and around London and playing with various show bands (including Bob Miller & The Millermen, The Nat Temple Orchestra, Chris Allen Band and many others). Since the mid-1980’s I have devoted most of my time & energy to working with many artists within the Christian Music industry (principally on recording and touring projects with Adrian Snell & Graham Kendrick but many others also). In 1989, following visits to the islands of Lindisfarne & Iona, I co-founded the musical project IONA, the result of discoveries made into the Celtic origins of the Christian faith within these Islands.
After two hugely successful recordings ('Iona' & 'Book Of Kells') I left the project/band to study for a degree in music, focussing two years of this study into the origins & relevance of Liturgical & Worship Music throughout history. During this period I continued to record and tour with Adrian Snell, including two deeply moving performances of his recording 'Song Of An Exile' at Yad Vashem (World Centre for Holocaust Research) in Jerusalem. I also embarked on a series of six CD recordings of 'Celtic Expressions of Worship' (for Kingsway Music) and four solo recording projects (for ICC): ‘Columcille’, ‘Lux Aeterna’, ‘Breath Of Heaven’ & ‘God Is Love’.
I have since undertaken extensive television & recording work (including many recordings for the BBC TV series 'Songs Of Praise' - with artists such as Aled Jones, The New English Orchestra, Lesley Garrett, Noel Richards, Graham Kendrick, Phatfish, Stuart Townend & Jonathan Veira). Although I still perform & record I now devote most of my time to teaching in schools (principally Norwich School & Norfolk Centre for Young Musicians - a Guildhall School of Music Academy) & privately, adjudicating & directing classical & jazz ensembles. For a number of years I was privileged to join the adjudication team at the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod, where musicians, dancers and singers perform each year from approximately 120 nations around the world.
August 2018