The best part of the event is that the fusion concert provides Omani musicians – that is budding talent – with a platform to perform with world class musicians. Every year, the Global Fusion helps the local community in this way and either one or two musicians get to play along with the world’s best musical talents. This year also, the fusion helped a young Omani talent –Hassan Jumaa Sangour Al Balushi who scintillated with the mizmar (a type of wind instrument).
The mizmar, an instrument that was originally played by sailors on their voyages, somehow caught the special fascination of Hassan Balushi, who soon realised that this was the instrument that lent life to his true calling. “Now, I have been playing the mizmar since the last 11 years,” Hassan, 24, said in a brief tete-atete with the Black & White at the Shangri-La prior to the event. He said he was mesmerised by the instrument when he discovered it at an Omani marriage; he was only 13 then. That was the turning point for Hassan, who had until then been learning the tabla (a type of drums) from his father and his uncles. Hassan picked up the mizmar as his instrument for life. Soon, with help from his talented uncles, Hassan not only mastered the instrument, but also began to play the mizmar as a fulltime profession. “You need good stamina and lung power,” says the beefy Hassan demonstrating the mizmar’s power with a few quick powerful notes. “Since it produces
quite loud music, it is one instrument that can benefit a marriage,” added Hassan, who works as a driver at a truck company in Barka. Reiterating that music had no barriers and no limitations of any kind, he said that music was quite an integral part of his life. Hassan who has performed at official and public events locally and abroad, was also thankful to the Global Fusion for giving him an “opportunity to share the musical arena with some global greats; the exposure that I get from such an event is tremendous”. The concert brought together five Indian musicians – Niladri Kumar (sitar); group leader; Gino Banks (drums/percussion); Satyajit Talwalker (tabla), Agnelo Fernandes (keyboards) and Sheldon D’Silva (bass). They performed along with other musical talents like Ossam Ezzeldin from the US (keyboards), Eliana Burki, Switzerland (alpenhorn), Abbos Kosimov, Uzbekistan (doyra) and Chloe Arnold, USA (tap dancer) and Hassan. Black & White 9