Kabuki Khanna, Indian Opera/Sufi Singer

Hi,

I'm Kabuki Khanna .

INDIAN OPERA  is the genre I invented and have been performing  the same with my band "Indian Opera "(Fusion Band ).

Also I do Musical DastanGoi which is "Indian Opera " with Storytelling.

I am mostly in  Sufi , Fusions , western Contemporary , opera ,Bollywood renditions .

I really believe in versatility.

If I talk about singing, it's not only my passion . It is everything to me. And my journey started from Opera singer to what people know me  today as " Indian Opera and Sufi Singer " Initially ,I decided to take up this art form and explore as much as I can .But honestly, I realised , the more I studied about it , the more I did research on it , the more I felt that it's not enough ,  it's really vast and therefore it turned from just a hobby to my life ,my passion ,my love and my job today.

And seriously I'm lovin' it.

 If I talk about my struggles , then I would definitely like to share this incident with everyone.There was a phase in my life when I lost my voice and got voice parallyses right before my final Trinity Advanced  Classical Vocal Examinations in the year  2015 .

I remember ,I had to perform many Opera  Arias and had no voice that time.

It was really devastating for me and for my family .

Somehow , i managed to do really  well with the help of vocal exercises and believe that it  wasn't less than  a miracle that I got my voice back.Because most of the  doctors we visited gave up on this. But yes I feel blessed as even after all of this ,I was the highest scorer and topped in that examinations. And this incident made me much more stronger.

There were many phases of my life , where I felt that I should really give up and should have taken up other proffesion and used to wonder that life has been really tough on me. But yes , with time ,I learnt that challenges are everywhere and one should really not give up at any moment in life .I know , life isn't that easy but not so difficult also that we cannot see the positives , avoiding the negatives.

As an  example , I would like to share this very close and special  moments  which changed my life .After all the bad phase I went through ,my family supported me to remain positive and strong.

A month later only , I got appointed as a voice coach in Delhi school of music chanakyapuri and  when I was being approached for Tseries song "Teri Galliyan " a very famous bollywood song by Ankit Tiwari .

So I did the remake of the same by giving english and Italian lyrics to it and sang the same. Then I got the opportunity to do voice Pedagogy workshop with NSD acting students in National School of Drama and also got to work with the director "Marianna Wainstein" in National School of Drama.

These moments gave me immense happiness and are very close to my heart.

As all this helped me in my own self- growth and gave me completely a different Outlook . I started looking at the life with much more happiness and confidence to do better and best every single day with more positivity.My art form is not just a work to me.

There are the moments when I went completely into the other zone while performing.

One of the incident ,I would like to share is the one when I was performing "Ya Habibi " -(, my love) ,my self composed Arabic song for Urdu heritage Festival with my band Indian Opera (fusion band )and the other "Zehal -e -Miskeen " originally composed by Amir Khusrow , I did remake of it and performed the same in Jashn-E-Rekhta . So while performing ,I was so lost in my art ,which I cannot even explain in words. It felt as if I was  in some other world .Felt so divine and connected with the God.And then suddenly , when you hear the audience applause , what can be more magical than this!

My art is the reason that I am "surviving  " What I meant is " my art is my life and this is what gave me a vision and a hope to live my life . It gives me happiness and a direction to lead my life.

The reason I am in this art form today is my dad"Akhilesh Khanna"  too. As I really got influenced from him as he himself Is an actor/director from National School of Drama and since I've grown up watching his theater plays and the way of his working has inspired me a lot. Got to learn from him a lot since my childhood.

If I talk about music field , then I really look up to sir A.R Rehman.  He is the

reason I chose Opera over the other genres, when  I began my journey.

And I really wish to work with him someday . It would be a dream come true .

 Back then , I always wanted to  perform in "The Teatro Massimo Vittorio Emanuele"

Opera House. I still wish the same. But since now the list is never ending....

So.. yet to be disclosed in my next  article.

Jokes apart, I'm happy and feel content ,whatever God has given me so far. I feel glad that I got such great opportunities , although I crave for more and wish to do as much work I can and give my best. But I really feel blessed that I got to do such major concerts and festivals.

Audience has been so kind ,I would say. As if I talk about the current  scenario, most of the  people have really been giving great response to the experiments done with the music , they are being  very open-minded when it comes to the creativity or remakes, remixes, EDMs and now My genre "Indian Opera " fusion .See here also, when I first performed this concept ,I was very hesitant to perform the same.

As singing "Me to Piya , Chaap Tilak , Kun faya Kun , Ore piya "etc  in Opera style was never done before . It was clearly an experiment done , but yes , I was ready for all the  negatives .But I was fortunate enough that I got really good response from the audience and I really appreciate that they do accept and show their liking for creativity and something new which comes up.

Now the struggle comes to maintain the same level of our  Performance and music we  deliver . Its really important as an artist to upgrade ourselves and keep adding good elements to our music to make it more exciting and thrilling for the audience. It shouldn't be monotonous.Every time they come to hear you , they do have higher expectations from the artist they follow as they look up to your  performances .

And when I'm on the  stage , I try my level  best to make the performance very thrilling and exciting for them .

Because seriously --

You may not remember as a performer what you wore  exactly in a particular show , where and which note you took so beautifully  In a particular song .

But your audience who follows you would  remember each and everything. So every performance and every audience is very important to us as an artist.

We cherish every moment.

And try to give best to them.