Sonam Kalra to perform at India’s 65th Republic Day celebrations
View(s):As part of the 65th Republic Day celebrations of India, the Indian Cultural Centre will present a musical evening titled ‘One World-One Voice – Spiritual Symphony’ by renowned Indian singer Sonam Kalra, at 6 p.m on January 25 at the Bishop’s College auditorium, Colombo.
High Commissioner of India, Y.K. Sinha will preside and Minister of Justice Rauff Hakeem will be the Chief Guest at the event.
Renowned Indian singer Sonam Kalra
The programme is organised with the support of the India-Sri Lanka Foundation, the Ministry of Culture and Art, Government of Sri Lanka, and Hotel Taj Samudra, Colombo.
Known for her powerful yet sensitive voice and her ability to blend styles, Sonam Kalra has been trained in both Indian and Western systems of music. She is renowned for The Sufi Gospel Project which, in her words “is an effort to blend all the voices of faith, through the use of song, music and the spoken word. Traditional western gospel melds with Indian classical sounds, and Indian spiritual texts are enriched by elements of western poetry to create a sound that touches every soul.
At the heart of this project is the belief that though we worship different Gods in different languages, the themes and philosophy of various religions around the world are the same. A testament to this is Sonam Kalra’s truly secular team – a keyboard player and guitarist, who are Christians; accompanists on the Sarangi and Tabla who are Muslims and the flautist and percussionist who are Hindus.
Sonam Kalra has performed at the Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony and in 2013, performed in Canada, Singapore, South Africa, London and Cambodia. In India, her performances included the Delhi, Jaipur and Patna editions of Muzaffar Ali’s World Sufi Festival, Jahan e Khusrau. She performed on the Coke Studio on MTV with a beautiful Persian song called ‘Man Manam’ which has over a million hits on Youtube.