KIRAN AHLUWALIA

India, Pakistan Ghazals Singer

Artist Bio

Kiran Ahluwalia is an Indo-Canadian singer who has devoted much of her life to learning the art of Indian vocal music. Trained in classical Indian singing, she found herself drawn to the ghazal form and folk songs of Punjab, her family's home region. The ghazal is a challenging form featuring both structure and improvisation. Accompanied by tabla, guitar and harmonium, Kiran adds the drone of the tanpura to her voice to fill out an ensemble capable of both delicacy and power.

Ghazals exist somewhere between the classical and popular tradition. They begin life as poems and with the addition of music, become songs. Their unbroken, 700 year tradition is alive and well in the South Asian literary diaspora. Unknown to most Canadians, there is a vibrant literary scene in most Canadian cities, where poets from Indian and Pakistani backgrounds create and read their work. Kiran Ahluwalia entered this hive of creative activity looking for words for her music and she was not disappointed. Rasheed Nadeem, Rafi Raza and Tahira Masood, live in Toronto where they are deeply involved in a number of literary organizations. Their poems, written in Punjabi and Urdu, provide the texts which, combined with Kiran's music, make an original contribution to the ghazal tradition.

In one of them, Rafi Raza abandons the usual ghazal theme of love to talk about the lot of the immigrant.

It is not that I intended to come here
but the path has led me here.

Laced with dust though I am, yet please consider
that for years I have been wandering dusty paths.

In my travel I too have become a martyr of sorts.
This should be enough to earn me some fame too.

These lines could speak for a thousand artists from a hundred cultures. Kiran Ahluwalia pays tribute to the journey of these poets and offers their works up to an audience which numbers in the tens of thousands.

kiranmusic.com/

Kiran Ahluwalia was the 2005 recipient of Canada's highest musical honor - the JUNO Award for "Best World Music Album" - and the recipient of the 2005 CAPACOA (Canadian Arts Presenters) "Touring Artist of the Year" award.