When 28-year-old Filipino-American singer-songwriter Kurt Tijamo was younger,
he didn’t know exactly what his ambition was. Since he has the height, he really loved playing basketball.
Kurt’s Filipina mom always convinced him to become a doctor. It wasn’t until in his
senior year in high school that he realized his “deep passion” for singing.
It was kind of serendipitous that Kurt auditioned for a musical on a whim. It was
scary for him to decide if he would study music in college instead of something more
traditional. He remembers merely second guessing his major, but then, he thought.
“Well, the world has enough accountants.’ So why not pursue music?”
US-based Kurt didn’t actually realize he wanted to become a singer until he was a
teenager. “I started out learning piano from my dad and thought that’s what I wanted to do,” he shares.
“Even when they bought me an acoustic guitar for my 13th birthday, I didn’t think
about being a singer-songwriter. So I didn’t really figure out that I had an instrument until I auditioned for musical theater in my senior year of high school, when I was 17. I discovered a love for singing and decided that I wanted to study music in college.”
The earliest and most influential person on Kurt’s musical development is his dad.
“He taught me to play piano and even gave me a musical vocabulary very early on that I feel still influences me today,” Kurt discloses.
Admirably enough, Kurt is also into writing songs. “Writing songs has always been a
hobby of mine; sometimes as a way to process intense feelings or just to compose a cool idea that I had,” Kurt discloses.
He has written a lot of songs. For his first single with Curve Entertainment, Kurt is
coming out with an original, pop, R&B (rhythm and blues) track, “U&Me.”
He expressed his desire to record an OPM (Original Pilipino Music) soon or perhaps re-imagine a track that everyone is familiar with.
Not surprisingly, Kurt is familiar with Filipino artists, mostly the ones that his mom
loves to listen to. “My mom always liked to sing ‘Mr. DJ’ by Sharon Cuneta when I was growing up,” recalls Kurt. “I love singing in Tagalog!”
He even did a set of Filipino kundiman for his graduate recital at the San Francisco
Conservatory of Music. “I really love Filipino music, especially a lot of the songs from the ‘60s and ‘70s. I’d love to do an OPM cover soon,” declares Kurt.