Fiona was born in England and, as a young child, led something of a nomadic life as her parents travelled from place to place. Her first opportunity to realise her dream of learning a musical occurred when living in Rhodesia as a 14 year old. By 
working for extra money she was able to fund the purchase of a Bellini guitar for all of 15 Rhodesian dollars! Like some many embryonic guitarists and musicians of the era, Fiona was heavily influenced by the folk sound, especially of artists such as Joni Mitchell and Crosby, Stills & Nash.
After leaving high school she dabbled in various music ventures and even made an appearance on television! She also started to compose her own music and explored a variety of finger playing styles as well as alternative guitar tunings. Proceeding to the University of Cape Town to study her musical horizons were expanded by the influences about her. She joined a band again and, after gigging for a time around Cape Town, decided to return to Bulawayo where she gained “daytime employment” as a computer programmer. Throughout this period she continued to ply her music trade in the various clubs and venues outside office hours.
Marrying in 1975, she set off with her husband to explore the World. This led to her working in London for a year, taking all that that music scene had to offer whilst she played the occasional gig on the folk club circuit. After exploring the Middle East she eventually returned to South Africa where she settled in Pietermaritzburg in 1980. After three years there she relocated to Durban where she continues to live.
In 1986 she co-founded the Durban Folk Club in order to resurrect the defunct folk scene and more than succeeded in this venture. Her involvement in this activity allowed her to meet a number of other prominent local musicians. With two of these fellow artists, WILL WALLACE and DAVE ATKINSON, they formed a trio called ODYSSEY which gained respect, not only for their collective musicianship, but also for their right three-part harmonies. The band later changed its name to BONA FIDE. The band later led to spin-offs which became prominent on the local scene, including the FIONA TOZER BAND and ALIEN.
In the early 90’s an album by ODYSSEY was released. Of the twelve tracks on the recording, eight were original compositions of Fiona’s. The album received modest acclaim and joined some airplay. In 1996 a second album was released, NEVERLAND. Fiona promoted this album at numerous musics “happenings” including the Maynardville Festival in Cape Town, Port Elizabeth’s Mannville Festival and Splashy Fen. Once again it earned a reasonable amount of airplay. In 1998 a third album was recorded and released, LIGHT & SOUND.
In 2001 Fiona started studying Music at the University of Natal and is, today, completing a Master’s degree in composition at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. In the interm she passed both his initial BA (Music) and BA (Honours) with distinction. Her classical composition TRIPTYCH FOR CHAMBER ORCHESTRA was performed by the KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic Orchestra in 2004.
The latest band she has formed is called QUARK and features alongside her ANTON CAWTHORN-BLAZEBY on violin and LOGAN BYRNE on double bass.
For more on this most interesting artist’s past, present and future visit her extremely professional website at: www.fionatozer.com