Ciara Louise Ferguson is a pianist, vibraphonist and singer from Adelaide, South Australia.
Biography[]
Ciara completed her Bachelor of Music (Jazz Performance) with First Class Honours at the Elder Conservatorium in 2021, where she also won the 2019 Helpmann Academy award for Top Piano Undergraduate. She has been a pianist, vibraphonist and/or backing vocalist for Tina Arena, Lior, Mark Holden, Eddie Perfect, Rhonda Burchmore, Rachael Beck, Paul Grabowsky, Joe Chindamo, Thando and Wendy Matthews.
Ferguson recently recorded albums with her own jazz-folk quartet, prog-rock band The Cortex Shift, contemporary jazz group Soylent Green (with whom she also performed at Womadelaide 2022 on the Northern Sound System stage) and Mark Simeon Ferguson’s ABC Jazz Commission, Where Emus Roam the Streets.
Ciara sang backing vocals for the 2022 Adelaide Cabaret Festival show Songs My Mother Taught Me featuring Tina Arena, and was part of the creative development workshops for the Adelaide Festival’s 2022 commission, Watershed. She performed in the SA premiere of Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians under the musical direction of Vanessa Tomlinson (2020). Ciara also composed the incidental music for the play 'Of Auburn'.
Ciara is the pianist for the Women in Jazz Adelaide Big Band, and has regularly gigged around Adelaide in jazz and pop bands, including her family group Marmalade Five, Minnie Little and Burjon. She has facilitated and assisted with workshops in the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra’s children’s programs (including at their 2021 Festival of Orchestra). Ciara works as a piano teacher and accompanist in schools and for the Adelaide Connection jazz choir.
Discography[]
As a leader[]
As Ciara Louise Ferguson
- River Walks - (2023)