One of the most famous Afghan singers, Zahir Huaida, has died at the age of 67 on Monday Hamburg, Germany aged 67.

Zahir Huaida was born in an intellectual family in 1945. His father was a poet.

His interest in music emerged when he was five. His father who lived in Balkh at the time, hired a music tutor to train his sons Zahir Huaida and Kabir Huaida who is now a well-known pianist.

Zahir Huaida was one of the first amateur singers in 1967 and also worked with Afghan National Radio and TV as a presenter.

He did his high school studies in Esteqlal high school in Kabul and went to Moscow in 1971 for further education.

He served to professionalise music in Afghanistan for forty years. He had his own style in singing which helped him make his way to the hearts of music lovers in a very short time.

In 1973, he was invited to Iran by the country's former king and was warmly welcomed by his fans there.

Mr Huaida had to leave his country in 1991 after fighting broke out in Kabul, and sought asylum in Holland where he continued his musical career.

He finally passed away in Holland on 5 March 2014.

Ghazal singer Jagjit Singh passed away in Lilavati Hospital in Mumbai, India on Monday morning. He was 70 years old.

Singh was admitted to Lilavati Hospital on September 23 after he suffered a brain haemorrhage. Since then, he underwent two operations to save his life.

"Jagjit Singh passed away at 8.10 am after having a terrible haemorrhage," Dr Sudhir Nandgaonkar, a hospital spokesman, said.

He is survived by his wife Chitra Singh.

Mr Singh was born in Sri Ganganagar in Rajasthan. He had four sisters and two brothers and was known as "Jeet" by his family.

Popularly known as "The Ghazal King", he gained acclaim together with his wife in the 1970s and 1980s as the first ever successful duo husband-wife act in the history of recorded Indian music.

He sang in several languages including Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi and Nepali.

Mr Singh also recorded movie soundtracks.

Two years back in April 2009 Ustad Jalil Zaland, a renowned Afghan singer, composer and poet, passed away in Tarzana in California, US.

ادامه مطلب...

Afghanistan's National Institute of Music held a year-end festival in Kabul to mark the first year of music training to youths.

The festival was participated by a number of education ministry officials, national and international musicians and students of the music institute.

Officials in the Ministry of Education said the festival is aimed at encouraging the young generation to further improve their art skills.

The festival is marking the end of winter music academy which was offering music classes to for the past two months.

More than 20 foreign and national musicians were invited by the institute to make music students acquainted with new skills.

"The National Music Institute is prepared to offer music classes to our young generation. The Institute has successfully completed its first year," Education Minister Farouq Wardak told TOLOnews.

"We made efforts to hold much concerts and training programmes in our winter classes," Ahmad Sarmast, founder of the music institute, told TOLOnews.

Afghan national music institute is functioning under ministry of education with the financial support of some countries and international musicians.

Last year the institute was renovated with the funding provided by the United States, Germany, France, Netherlands and Finland.

Presently around 130 students receive music lessons in the institute.