Part of the 13th Annual Small World Music Festival
Presented by Koerner in partnership with the Aga Khan Museum.

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 enchanting and seductive music has garnered glowing praise from critics around the world. Her’s 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). But most of all, Kiran Ahluwalia is a unique and inspiring performer and composer, who’s legion of fans continues to grow with every captivating performance and each new recording project.

Kiran has made a career of transcending the boundaries often imposed on artists from outside the mainstream. On album, 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 most recently African blues. In live performance she has also been a keen collaborator. Kiran has performed her compositions with the 33-piece Winnipeg Chamber Orchestra and the larger Chicago sinfonietta. She has also collaborated with jazz guitarist, Rez Abbasi, Inuit throat singer, Tanya Tagaq and electronica groups Delerium, and Eccodek.

Rizwan and Muazzam Mujahid Ali Khan are the torchbearers of a tradition that goes back over 700 years, the tradition of qawwali. Qawwali is an Arabic word that means "utterance" and it is the devotional music of the Sufis of Pakistan and India. When the unforgettable qawwali singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan died in Pakistan in 1997, he left a musical vacuum into which stepped his two teenage nephews. Despite their extreme youth, they were determined that their group Rizwan-Muazzam Qawwali should continue their uncle's pioneering efforts to transcend cultural, language and religious barriers and to bring to the world the devotional but vibrant Qawwali vocal music of the Sufi mystics of the Islam religion. Rizwan Muazzam Qawwali have recorded four albums with Real World Records.