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Sample Track 1:
"Rabh da Roop" from Kiran Ahluwalia
Sample Track 2:
"Jhanjra" from Kiran Ahluwalia
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Kiran Ahluwalia
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That's ghazal, folks

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Santa Cruz Sentinel, That's ghazal, folks >>

That's ghazal, folks

Is there anyone as comfortable in the ancient and the modern, the East and the West as singer KIRAN AHLUWALIA?

She was born in the Bihar province of northern India, considered the birthplace of Buddhism. But she grew up in cosmopolitan Toronto. She earned an MBA and had a thriving career as a bonds trader. But she put that behind her to go back to India and study a little-known form of music that originated 1,000 years ago.

Ahluwalia performs Friday at the Cayuga Vault in Santa Cruz, introducing audiences to a form known as ghazal, a tradition of poetry and music that began in ancient Persia before migrating to India.

Exposed to Indian classical music by her parents, Ahluwalia dove into the ghazal tradition upon meeting and then studying under ghazal maestro Vithal Rao. The ghazal evolved as a very specific form of poetry, but with its advent in India, it has developed into a form of music focused primarily on themes of love. Its distinctive female spirit is reflected in the term's translation from Arabic: It means "talking to women."

Ahluwalia won the Juno, the Canadian equivalent of the Grammy, for her album "Beyond Boundaries." On her most recent recording, she makes a statement of her Canadian upbringing by collaborating with famous Cape Breton fiddler

NATALIE MACMASTER.

 03/02/06 >> go there
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