Fidan Hajiaga qizi Hajiyeva/Naylor, Azerbaijan opera singer, People's Artist of the Republic of Azerbaijan, mezzo-soprano, Soloist of the Azerbaijan National Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre. Life Fidan Hajiaga qizi Hajiyeva was born in Baku, Azerbaijan in 1976. In 1984 she entered the fortepiano class of the Bulbul Secondary Music School. After graduating school in 1994 she entered the faculty vocal of the Baku Music Academy named after Uzeyir Hajibeyli, becoming a student of Professor Huseyn Aliyev. In 1998 she received master classes for vocal art from the world-famous People’s Artist of Russian Federation Irina Arkhipova. Fidan Hajiyeva married Philip Naylor from England in 2003; they have one daughter and two sons. Career Since 1996 Fidan Hajiyeva has been a leading vocalist at the Azerbaijan State Opera and Ballet Theatre, performing national and classical leading opera roles. She became Baku’s youngest performer of the title role of Carmen in Georges Bizet’s Carmen opera. Her leading roles include many in Verdi’s operas: Amneris in Aida, Azuchena in Il trovatore, Maddalena in Rigoletto opera Flora in La traviata. She also sings Rozini in Rossini’s opera The Barber of Seville and La Principessa in Suor Angelica by Maskeni. In Azerbaijani national opera she performs as the singing girl in Uzeyir Hajibeyli’s opera Koroglu, as Asiya in the operetta Arshin mal alan (The cloth peddlar) and as Gulush in the opera Sevil by Fikret Amirov. In 2000 Fidan Hajiyeva represented the Republic of Azerbaijan in the Turksoy Festival in Turkey and in the same year joined the Mersin State Opera and Ballet Theatre where she performed Carmen in Mersin, Istanbul, Izmir and Ankara, together with the ancient Roman open air theatre at “Aspendos” near Antalya before an audience of 15,000 people. Italians delighted by Fidan’s voice invited her to study in the masterclass of the Italian mezzo-soprano Bernadette Manca di Nissa at the Academy of Chigiana, where she won first prize in the final international competition. Fidan released her first album Jealously and Love in 2003, singing national and international songs in seven languages. In 2004, Fidan became a master soloist in the Hazi Aslanov Song and Dance Ensemble of the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Azerbaijan, regularly participating in concert programs on patriotic themes to soldiers stationed in the regions of Azerbaijan. Fidan participated in the Azerbaijani delegation to the Expo 2005 World Fair in Nagoya, Japan, where she promoted the music