Young Kuwaiti musicians shine in Bahrain

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HMC organizes First Gulf Musician Idol Competition

KUWAIT CITY, Dec 9: Just as we complete the Kuwait Music Academy (KMA) participation in the First Gulf Musician Idol Competition in Bahrain with 11 finalists from Kuwait — chosen by the jury and Internet viewers — it is nice to know that the music in Kuwait and the Gulf is limping back to normalcy as other parts of our life. Nonetheless, it depends on circumstances and actual possibilities.

The Covid-19 pandemic has knocked out every daily routine in our life — material and spiritual. Add to this all other social activities including the cultural programs in general and musical in particular.

Music stages and arenas all over the world resemble ghost towns, a scenario which over the months has created a sense of emptiness in the lives of audiences and music lovers. However life and humanity cannot come to terms with such emptiness and as a result of which we see people and popular stars and amateurs have begun attempts to establish contacts with music and music listeners via the Internet. A similar very successful attempt has been made by the Gulf region, the Kingdom of Bahrain to be specific.

The Director of Harmony Music Center (HMC), Olha Kochura with her team organized the 1st Gulf Musician Idol Competition held online on November 22-27, 2020. The HMC invited contestants from Kuwait, Oman, Qatar UAE and Bahrain, from the beginners up to adults for a competition in singing, playing piano or any other instrument at any level. All that the contestants had to do was record and send the video of their performance to the HMC. The response was big and the HMC received 258 entries.

The panel of judges assessed the videos into six groups according to age levels and certain instruments or singing and then uploaded these videos on the HMC YouTube Channel. One hundred and twenty talents were selected for the Grand Finale, performed live through Zoom on Friday, Nov 27. The Jury selected the First, Second and Third winner and the Special Viewers’ Choice Award went to those who have got the ‘most views’ on YouTube.

Kuwait Music Academy is happy and proud for its students who tasted success in this competition. Eleven of them received ‘high’ well-deserved awards. The Viewers’ Award went to three of them, all pianists — 6 years old Beginner, Witold Masternak; Advanced, Shaun Thomas and Superior to Sulaiman Mukhaiber.

The aim of the competition was to unite young musicians from the Gulf countries, the music institution and their educators, to collaborate and share the experiences, set the target for learning and enhancing the skills, provide young talents the opportunity to perform and share their creativity. Congratulations to the Bahraini Team and Mme Olha Kochura.

Now will be a good time for the Kuwait Music Academy to embark on its traditional Chopin Competitions, which has already held five editions from 1999 to 2010 in Kuwait (but also in Bahrain, Qatar and UAE) these days are organized online and on offer are regional music talents. For lovers of music it is a good opportunity and a chance to cultivate their passion.

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