Kuwait’s Hassan Hajiyah makes his mark on int’l stage

KUWAIT CITY, Aug 3: ‘Summer Time’ is a beautiful song about the summer holiday by G. Gershwin. In Kuwait, the streets and shopping malls are deserted during summer. It is the opposite at the resorts and tourist destinations in different parts of the world; which are filled with people, music and many other attractions. Summer is not a ‘cucumber season’ season everywhere.

For years, summer is a time for music festivals. The most popular are various vocal festivals with a wide range — from operatic like Puccini’s in Torre del Lago or Wagnerian in Bayreuth up to Chicago’s pop music festival Lollapalooza. Most of them are drawing attention and are usually crowded. Definitely, some families spend part or full summer holiday in the city, because of duties or other circumstances. For their children and youths everywhere, several local activities and courses are organized.

Thanks to the information from Arab Times or About Kuwait (on the Internet), I noticed that the number and variety of such activities are growing constantly in Kuwait. Since a few years ago, Kuwait Music Academy (KMA) has been organizing music, vocal and instrumental summer courses. The activities became popular and packed. This year such courses started only two days after the school year ended and were conducted by renowned KMA lecturers — Viktor Shramko and Dmitri Krasnikov, The International Summer Music Master courses are also well-known in Europe.

This year, the voices from Kuwait sounded loudly in one of these cources, or we can even say ‘dominated the course’. The 21st Treasure of Talents Festival crowned the year 2022/2023 in KMA, owing to the enormous success of International Opera Soprano, Mrs. Alexandre Novina-Chacinska. She also conducted the Vocal Master Course for KMA students. The undisputable winner of the course was a Kuwaiti talented singer — Hassan Hajiyah who showcased excellent voice, musicality and stage presence. He is the student of pianist and vocal lecturer, Mrs. Kinga Masternak.

After such success, Hajiyah was invited to the 18th International Vocal Master Course in Poland, which is being conducted yearly by Mrs. Alexandra in different major cities and resorts in Poland. This year, the threeweek long Master Course – Opera More – was held in the beautiful Lower Silesian city, Brzeg Dolny Palace where Hajiyah repeated his success, so much that he was encouraged to consider pursuing Operatic studies at The Polish Music Academy. At the Final Gala Concert entitled ‘Pearls of the Vocal Classics’, the winners performed a number of Opera, Operetta and Musical world hits. Surprisingly, there were more voices from Kuwait. Besides Hajiyah, two female academic musicians lecturing in Kuwait also participated — Kinga Masternak, an outstanding soprano singer and pianist who was there as a Concert Star; and talented cellist, Aga Fajga, who appeared as a soprano singer this time.

It is possible to say that voices from Kuwait dominated the renowned European Vocal Master Course this year. “It is a reason to be proud and congratulate them once they return home to Kuwait,” says KMA Co-Founder Fajer Al-Mazidi. In September, we will also welcome internationally renowned guitar virtuoso Alexandre Kovalev who will conduct guitar courses upon the invitation of KMA. Apparently, ‘Summer Time’ and ‘Voices from Kuwait’ would sound strongly and beautifully in the country, as well as in summer, rather in all four seasons.
By Prof Cezary Owerkowicz Pianist, co-founder of KMA