Dya Singh is the master musical interpreter of the traditional Sikh hymns (shabad) with diverse influences from around the globe.
Based in Australia, he is acknowledged as the most significant singer/musician in the world today of the Sikh mystical musical tradition, a form that originated in Punjab (now North India/Pakistan) but spread throughout the western World with the recent diaspora of Sikhs worldwide.
Originally from Malaysia, his father was a renowned Sikh spiritual minstrel and Dya learnt the Sikh songs and the art of singing beside his father in the Sikh ‘Gurudwaras’ from the age of five onwards. He stopped singing publicly for almost fifteen years and in 1992 began again to present concerts in Australia. He turned fully professional in 1995 and his achievements in this time include the release of over 26 CDs, tours nationally and to USA, England, Canada, Singapore, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Singapore, Thailand & Malaysia, UAE (Dubai) and Kenya. Tours have included arts, folk, new-age, world and sacred music festivals worldwide including WOMADelaide, Woodford Folk Festival, Singapore Arts Festival, Vancouver Folk Festival, Winnipeg Folk Festival and the California World Music Festival, to name a few.
Dya Singh has been one of Australia’s pioneers in the development of new Australian ‘World’ music. A Dya Singh performance is many things and moves as the mood requires; soothing, uplifting, exhilarating, hypnotic, informative with interaction and improvisation between the musicians and conveying the sense of joy that arises from creativity and spirituality meeting on stage. The music is transformational in that no matter what the context, the music is true to the traditional intention and captures the essential mystical quality that has inspired the Sikhs (and many others) for centuries. The critics are unanimous in their praise of his voice, his control over his material and his innovations and improvisational approach to the music.
Dya Singh has released over 26 CD’s since forming of which some have been recorded by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation & sponsored by various Federal & State Government Departments. A Dya Singh concert is an inspirational experience. The music takes you by the heart, soothing in a meditative way and then uplifts with an array of glorious compelling rhythms, blended instruments, drones, wonderful improvisations and a message in words and chants that speaks of acceptance, respect, fulfilment, love and the quest for universal harmony. This is music that changes the World!
“Dya Singh is the true messenger of the universal message of Amritsar – the holy city of the Sikhs – and its Golden Temple. He and his group remind me of the Golden Temple – not as a holy shrine of the Sikhs alone, but a holy shrine of all people.” (His Holy Highness – The Dalai Lama at the Closing Ceremony of the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Melbourne Dec.2009).”
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