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Hamza Ala' Eldin - حمزة علاء الدين

Hamza Ala 'Eldin is considered "father of the Nubian music", as he has suscitated a revival and introduced the oud as the main music instrument. Hamza Ala' Eldin was born in the Nubian village of "Toshka" in Southern Egypt, in1929. After the construction of the Aswan High Dam he moved to Cairo with his family, where he studied engineering. However, his true passion was for music. After studies at the Ibrahim Shafiq Institute for Music, he continued studying at the King Fouad Institute for Middle Eastern Musician, where he excelled playing Oud (lute).

After having worked in engineering for some time, he obtained a grant at the "Santa Cecilia" Academy in Rome for studies in Western music and guitar, although expenses sometimes forced him to sleep in a park. In 1964 Hamza was invited to perform at the Newport Heritage Music Festival, where he sang in Nubian language and was acclaimed by tens of thousands of spectators. He than emigrated to the United States of America where he worked as a professor of ethnomusicology in various American universities. He also composed and recorded around 20 records, with among others the song "Noubala" (In Nubia), "Assaramessuga" (Childhood), "Desse Barama" (Peace), which he sang at the United Nations, "Eskaley" (Waterwheel), "Awish", "Shortunga" (The Spirits) and many more, as well as some instrumentals.

During that period Hamza Ala' Eldin came to Egypt several times, shortly taught Nubian musicians and gave some concerts. He also performed at the opening ceremony of the Nubia Museum in Aswan in 1997. As his stays were rather of short duration, he never acquired big fame in Egypt - even among the Nubian population, although he sung most of his songs in Nubian. Hamza Ala' Eldin also composed some soundtracks for movies and ballett companies, and participated in several music festivals in the World. For some time Hamza settled in Japan, where he married a Japanese woman, but later he returned to the United States where he died in 2006.