Sonam Kalra – Central News Hub

Sonam Kalra’s Fusion Music Journey

The performance at NMACC will be a collection of well and lesser-known poetry of mystic poets as well as people who wrote about inclusion and finding faith, and God within…writes Sukant Deepak

Trained in both Hindustani classical and Western traditions of music including Gospel, Jazz, and Opera, Sonam Kalra, who is all set for HCL’s ‘Friday’s Sufi Magic’ and ‘Songs of the Sacred’ at the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre (NMACC) on October 8, feels studying both traditions of music has been instrumental in ‘opening’ her mind and helping her approach music with a wider perspective.

“It has also allowed me to add the learnings from varied styles to what I present. The same gives me the freedom to use the different colours and projections of my voice, phrase a song to my personal liking or interpret a piece differently using influences of both traditions,” she tells IANS.

For the HCL concert, she will present a more traditional Sufi set with the poetry of well-known poets like Bulleh Shah and Amir Khusrau in her own style and understanding of the kalaams.

The performance at NMACC will be a collection of well and lesser-known poetry of mystic poets as well as people who wrote about inclusion and finding faith, and God within.

“It is a prestigious venue and I am looking forward to performing there,” she adds.

Someone who was invited in 2022 to join the US Grammy Recording Academy as a voting member and has performed in over 30 countries at festivals and venues across the world including Sydney Opera House and Pyramids of Gaza, Kalra, she is known for constantly experimenting and incorporating elements from multiple genres in her music — like adding the recitation of Tagore’s ‘Where the Mind is Without Fear’ in her version of ‘Hum Dekhenge’.

Kalra smiles she would not have achieved in her journey what she has if she cared too much about what purists thought.

Stressing that art is a personal journey and the minute one lets voices from the outside colour personal judgment or tell what should or should not be done, one stops being true to yourself, she adds, “ For me, the only way to create art is to be true to yourself. We have to push the boundaries, experiment, make mistakes, and face the struggle to get to an end — which feels right.”

Admitting that despite multiple festivals and streaming platforms, things have not really improved for independent musicians, the musician feels what is really needed is an ecosystem that encourages artists, and that means involvement from both the private sector and governments.

“Of course, there are corporates like HCL that have been giving consistent patronage to the arts for the past 25 years.”

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Women in the divine

Someone who continues to be fascinated by live performances, Kalra feels the energy of the audience and the intimate relationship one can create with them –individually and collectively is possible only during a live performance…reports Asian Lite News

Invited in 2022 to join the US Grammy Recording Academy as a voting member, singer Sonam Kalra has been on a roll post Pandemic. As she gets to release several new tracks this year, Kalra tells, “I have been performing a series of ‘Women in the Divine’ concerts which explores the feminine in Sufism. And there are lots of new ideas constantly brewing.”

The singer, part of the ongoing 12th Jashn-e-Adab Art, Culture and Literature Festival being held in the Capital has been trained in both Indian music and Western traditions of music like Gospel, Jazz, and Opera, and has performed in over 30 countries at festivals and venues around the world including the Sydney Opera House and the Pyramids of Gaza.

Her ‘process’ is to deep dive which usually starts with researching poetry. “It is always the lyrics for me first that move and inspire me – and then I figure how I want to interpret, structure, arrange, and compose it. I start focussing on it completely – even when I am not working on it, it is always in the back of my mind. Considering my diverse training, my music always tends to have influences of all diverse styles- sometimes subtle and sometimes more obvious. I like to create and then revisit the composition after a while to take a fresh look at it and add more layers and nuances,” she says.

Kalra, who will be will be singing a mix of poetry and kalams of both well and lesser-known poets who wrote in Urdu, Farsi, and Punjabi- ranging from Hazrat Zaheen Shah Taji to Baba Bulleh Shah during Jashn-e-Adab, says it is praiseworthy not just owing to its format and the fact that it honours Urdu literature and its richness, but also how accessible it is. “It gives many diverse voices a chance to share their art,” she says.

This former advertising professional says that the period of Pandemic induced lockdowns taught her several things. “The fact that music and creativity continue to flow – everything we go through makes us grow in ways we did not even know we were capable of… So, despite what felt like a pause in so many ways – I worked around that pause to keep moving,” she adds.

And when it comes to music platforms in India, she laments there are not enough in India, and feels an urgent need for more funding for festivals, both from the government and the corporate sector.

“Jahan-e-Khusrau is held every year at the Humayun’s tomb and the Mahindra Kabira Festival, which takes place on the banks of the Ganga in Benares are excellent, but we have so many beautiful historic venues and public spaces that can be used to make art accessible to everyone- and not just confine it to auditoriums and festivals,” says Kalra who feels independent musicians continue to face challenges of funding and enough platforms.

Someone who continues to be fascinated by live performances, Kalra feels the energy of the audience and the intimate relationship one can create with them –individually and collectively is possible only during a live performance.

“Music touches people deeply and each person interprets it in his/her own peculiar way. Knowing how you can carry the audience through their own personal journey is equal parts spiritual and emotional for me,” says the singer who is finding time to get into the studio to finish unfinished tracks. “There are also some collaborations in the pipeline,” she concludes.

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