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KASHISH
- ATTRACTION Available from Festival Distribution |
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Love
Songs from the land of the Kama Sutra The Story so far . . . 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 divided into 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. Having graduated from the University of Toronto with a degree in Industrial Relations, Kiran was ensconced in the Human Resources department of a credit union. Educated and employed, her parents were beginning to raise the next item on a young woman's agenda- marriage. Kiran, however, was haunted by a recurring vision of waking up as an old woman and realizing she had never done the one thing she really wanted to do-pursue music as a full time occupation. Having studied Indian music on a part-time basis throughout high school and university, in 1990 she quit the job and went to India to immerse herself in the rigorous life of a full time music student. Everything was hard, finding the right teacher, the studying, the loneliness, the culture shock, the weather, the life of a single woman in a patriarchal society. But when Kiran Ahluwalia came home she knew she had found what she really wanted to do. After receiving her training in classical music in Bombay, she traveled to Hyderabad. Here she found Vithal Rao, one of the last living court musicians of the Nizam (King) of Hyderabad. A man of legendary vocal ability and kindness, he is a living link to the centuries old ghazal tradition. Rao took on Kiran as his student. She returns regularly to India to continue her studies in greater depth with this living master of the ghazal tradition. Although her family is from Punjab, Kiran herself had never visited the region until the mid '90s. Taking advantage of an extended period of study in India, Kiran decided it was time to learn first hand the folk songs of her ancestral region. Traveling to small villages Kiran immersed herself in the daily life and celebrations. She spent time with a number of traditional singers absorbing their style and approach and regularly performs some of these songs. For the last ten years Kiran has bounced between studies in India, performances in Canada and the United States, and more mundane pursuits: she got an MBA in Halifax and spent six months as a bond trader in Toronto. She discovered her musical skills and business degree could land her jobs closer to her art. She worked for Saturday Night Magazine, produced short segments for Women's Televison Network (WTN), and spent a year at CBC radio, producing for Global Village, Two New Hours, and Stereo Morning. She even managed to get some Indian music on the air! For the next two years, first in New York and then in San Francisco, she worked as Assistant General Manager of Putumayo World Music, a leading North American world music record label. While helping to sell other people's recordings Kiran planned how to make her own. Finally in June of 2000 Kiran decided to come home to Toronto and throw herself fully into a life devoted to the full time making of her own music. Kiran is putting the finishing touches on her first full-length recording, Kashish - Attraction. She found the musicians in Canada and England to realize her vision on stage, and is ready to share with audiences one of the great vocal traditions of the world's cultures. She is not only an interpreter of ghazals but has composed her
own music for several poems. Her own compositions are firmly rooted
in the tradition while taking a modern turn. Today Kiran Ahluwalia
has become an organic part of the long line of singers who have
preserved and reinvented the ghazal form over the last thousand
years, just as she has absorbed the rich traditions of Punjabi folk
music. Today Kiran can herself create the magic sounds that first
enthralled her as a young girl many years ago, the art form that
is the foundation of all arts. |
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