Wathiq Hoosain!

Wathiq Hoosain, singer, pianist, composer and arranger, was born in Cape Town, South Africa. From the age of twelve, he has frequented local theatre houses performing as a singer and actor from musicals to cabarets. After receiving high acclaim as a theatre performer, Wathiq moved on to join the local Jazz scene and left the theatre world ever since. He joined a collaborative band with many other young musicians under the tutelage of Shannon Mowday, leading female saxophonist and band leader. The band had their debut performance at the Sekunjalo Music Festival at the Baxter theatre and received a great review. Even though the band split afterwards, Wathiq continued to work very closely with Mowday and often sang with her award winning band, Galumphing who featured some of South Africa´s finest musicians and special guest, Deborah Tanguy (Paris, France) who soon became Wathiq´s singing coach and mentor for four years. He also studied Classical piano with Shelley Ainsworth, Victor Trichardt and Francois du Toit over the years and developed a considerable finesse at the piano. Wathiq has since been part of the Standard Bank National Big Band as lead vocalist for 4 consecutive years at the annual National Youth Jazz Festival held in Grahamstown, he has also performed at the Cape Town International Jazz Festival nod Joy of Jazz Festival in Gauteng. He has graced the stage with the North Sea Big Band (Norwegian/South African band conducted by Norwegian trumpeter Arne Hiorth) as well as the Oakham Big Band (UK), Boston Music Academy (USA), Dutch pianist, Jeroen Van Vliet and Guro Gravem Johansen, leading Norwegian singer and well as the Deborah Tanguy Band at Le9 Jazz club in Paris last December. He has performed on national television on "Afro-Cafe" as well as "South African IDOLS" and appeared in the CUE arts magazine. Wathiq has sung with many vocal ensembles, most recently the NMH vocal ensemble as well as the UCT choir and vocal ensemble. He is also a stellar teacher and arranger, having taught and worked with many school choirs in Cape Town in addition to directing many school Cabarets. Wathiq is currently a student at the South African College of Music, UCT under the tutelage of Amanda Tiffin after spending one year studying at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo, Norway.

"Wathiq Hoosain Quartet" at Viktoria Nasjonal Jazzscene, Oslo, Norway 7 June 2010:

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