Biography
Expressing her muse through ghazals and Punjabi folk songs, Kiran Ahluwalia explores the language of the heart with beautiful artistry and smoldering intensity. Born in India, raised in Canada, and now living in New York City, her music has garnered glowing praise from critics around the world. Hers is “a voice destined to enchant more than one generation” (fROOTS) and she possesses “a deep spirituality and tranquility that borders on the mystic” (Sing Out Magazine).
Kiran has long been on a path to mastery to sing and compose ghazals – the sensual and highly literary poetry about unrequited love and ion for all things. Kiran immersed herself in Indian classical music and ghazals from the time she was seven, but she also spent a decade of intense deep study with her guru Vithal Rao, starting in the early 1990s. At the same time, she traveled throughout the Punjab, immersing herself in the style and approach of Punjabi folk songs.
In 2001 she recorded her first commercial CD, Kashish-Attraction. All of her albums have been nominated for JUNO Awards – the highest musical honour in Canada – and her record Beyond Boundaries (2003) took home the prestigious prize.
Kiran has made a career of transcending the boundaries often imposed on artists from outside the mainstream. Her compositions and arrangements have contributed to the evolution of the ghazal genre, through the subtle use of a multitude of sounds and styles from other cultures – including: Portuguese fado guitarra, sub Saharan percussion, Celtic fiddle, Pakistani qawwali vocals, the rhubab of Afghanistan and more. Kiran has performed her compositions with a 33-piece Chamber Orchestra, jazz guitar and saxophone, an Inuit throat singer, and over the driving beat of dub electronica.
Kiran has long been on a path to mastery to sing and compose ghazals – the sensual and highly literary poetry about unrequited love and ion for all things. Kiran immersed herself in Indian classical music and ghazals from the time she was seven, but she also spent a decade of intense deep study with her guru Vithal Rao, starting in the early 1990s. At the same time, she traveled throughout the Punjab, immersing herself in the style and approach of Punjabi folk songs.
In 2001 she recorded her first commercial CD, Kashish-Attraction. All of her albums have been nominated for JUNO Awards – the highest musical honour in Canada – and her record Beyond Boundaries (2003) took home the prestigious prize.
Kiran has made a career of transcending the boundaries often imposed on artists from outside the mainstream. Her compositions and arrangements have contributed to the evolution of the ghazal genre, through the subtle use of a multitude of sounds and styles from other cultures – including: Portuguese fado guitarra, sub Saharan percussion, Celtic fiddle, Pakistani qawwali vocals, the rhubab of Afghanistan and more. Kiran has performed her compositions with a 33-piece Chamber Orchestra, jazz guitar and saxophone, an Inuit throat singer, and over the driving beat of dub electronica.
