Azernews.Az

BAKU – Ethnic Azerbaijani Belgian singer and pianist Nezrin Efendiyeva (Nezrine) gave a concert in the Azerbaijani capital on Thursday on the occasion of Belgian National Day.

Nezrine is the granddaughter of renowned late Azerbaijani composer Fikret Amirov.

The concert, organized at the Baku Jazz Center by the Belgian embassy in Baku, was attended by Youth and Sports Minister Azad Rahimov and Ambassador Luc Truyens.

"Nezrine is a bridge between the two countries," Truyens said. "Born to a family of great musicians in Azerbaijan, she has fully integrated into the Belgian society and incorporates the music of both nations in her work."

The Baku-born Nezrine moved to Brussels, Belgium with her parents, in 1995, at the age of 16, and pursued her musical studies at the Brussels Royal Conservatory of Music, where she graduated in 2001 with the First Prize and Superior Prize in Piano. In 2003 she was a prizewinner at the Huesca International Piano competition in Spain. Intrigued by different musical styles, she created "L’Estro Barocco", a baroque ensemble, where she played harpsichord. Around 2010 she radically changed her musical direction and started focusing on singing. She started writing her own songs resulting in a stunning cultural mix including infuences from chanson, oriental music as well as jazz and classical music. She now pursues the career of singer-songwriter in Belgium where she still lives and works with Belgian musicians. Although she mostly writes in French, she has also arranged some of her grandfather’s famous vocal works.

This story is published by AzerNEWS Weekly under a project funded by the Foundation for State Assistance to the Development of the Media under the President of the Azerbaijan Republic.