KirAnMusic.com
Title
Welcome to KiranMusic.com - The Home of Kiran Ahluwalia's music online
Description
In the Bharatya Natya Shastra, the book written 2000 years ago, which is the foundation document of Indian aesthetics, there is the story of a king who wished to carve sculptures of the gods. The king went to a sage, to ask for instruction. The sage told the king he would first have to learn the laws of painting before he could learn about sculpture. The king then asked to be taught painting but was told before he could learn to paint he would first have to learn the art of dance, since dance influenced painting. When he asked to be instructed in dance the king was told that this would be difficult unless he first learned the principles of instrumental music, which dance was based on. Growing frustrated, the king agreed to learn instrumental music. The sage then told the king that this, unfortunately, would be impossible until he had first studied vocal music for "vocal music is the source of all the arts."
Kiran Ahluwalia is a performer of vocal music. More precisely she is a performer of two distinct styles of vocal music from the Indian subcontinent, now India and Pakistan. Kiran sings ghazals and Punjabi folk songs. The word ghazal is an Arabic word that means "to talk to women". Given that men have traditionally spoken to women a great deal about love; the name attached itself to a form of poetic sung verse that originated in Persia about 1000 years ago and reached India around 400 years later. This happened about 600 years before Kiran Ahluwalia was born but was to have a profound effect on her life.
Kiran Ahluwalia was born in the state of Bihar in Northern India to Punjabi parents. The family moved to New Zealand for the first four years of Kiran's life and back to India for another five before coming to Canada where Kiran grew up in Toronto. In the seventies the Indian community in Toronto was relatively small. Cultural events took place in people's homes. Singers would perform in basements and living rooms; concerts were promoted by word of mouth. These concerts were not primarily for children. They featured a repertoire, language and content that was both demanding and beyond the experience of a child. Kiran was, however, entranced by the sound and feel of the music. Later, like many other children of immigrants, she went to classes in the dance and music of her country of origin, and performed occasionally at her home or those of friends of her parents. And there it might have ended if Kiran had not "got the itch"' as she describes it.
Contact
- Ahluwalia, Kiran
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- Markham Ontario
- Canada L3S 1S7
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- 905 479 9580
