Edward Fairlie grew up in Geelong where he completed his schooling at Christian College. In 2003 he completed a Bachelor of Music at the Victorian College of the Arts on trumpet, where he studied with some of Australia’s finest jazz trumpeters including Eugene Ball, Bob Venier and Greg Spence.
Edward has performed both nationally and internationally, playing with artists as diverse as Paul Kelly and Kamahl, and in 2011/12 toured with ARIA and Grammy award winning pop/rock group Gotye on trumpet and backing vocals. He has also been a keyboardist, trumpeter and backing vocalist for internationally renowned singer/songwriter Julia Stone, as well as a trumpet player with retro-Bollywood group The Bombay Royale. .Edward has also performed as a singer with ARIA award winning a capella vocal group The Idea of North as a fifth member for their 2016 Christmas tour.
As a composer/arranger, Edward has written music for wind band, jazz ensemble, brass band, chamber woodwind groups, and was recently commissioned to compose school anthems for three different schools in Melbourne. He also has several pieces published in AMEB books for brass.
Edward is an experienced conductor, having worked with groups of all ages and ability levels. He is a former trumpet teacher and conductor at Eltham High School, where he also directed their Senior Stage Band and taught instrumental music from 2006 until 2019. He has been a guest conductor at many music camps, most recently the Geelong Summer Music Camp, where he conducted the orchestra accompanying jazz luminary James Morrison. He has also lectured at the Victorian College of the Arts in the Interactive Composition course.
Now a full-time composer and performer, he has played in professional pit orchestras for theatre shows such as Aladdin, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Evita, and most recently, Frozen. He also performed with Orchestra Victoria for the 2021 Australian Ballet performance, Volt.
2022 saw one of his chamber string works Under/Over performed as part of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra’s Rebirth chamber music series. This year also saw the launch of his three-piece rock band Eddie and the Fast Boys in which he is the lead vocalist, pianist and songwriter.
