UK-based artist Amrit Lohia performs in city

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, February 1

UK-based sarangi player and vocalist Amrit Kaur Lohia performed and conducted a workshop at One Up library for children as she shared her journey as a musician and a Punjabi. At 23, Lohia has travelled extensively, performing live and facilitating workshops. A self-taught musician, Lohia recently performed at Jaipur Lit Festival, rendering her voice to Amrita Pritam’s poetry with her sarangi in tow.

“It was an experience of a lifetime," she shared. A student of history at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London University, Amrit was born in Tottenham and raised in Edmonton in north London. She started playing at the age of 13 and masters in genres of Punjabi folk, jazz and soul, is a youth worker, mentoring youth offenders, children in foster care and those least advantaged.

Perfroming at Pingalwara and Then Khalsa college later, Lohia shared her perspective on the theme of Partition through her music. Born into a family that was displaced from Sialkot during Partition, Lohia said her mother was from Patiala and father from Rajasthan. They migrated to London in the 1960s,” she said.

Her performance was based on Sadat Hasan Manto’s ‘Toba Tek Singh; interwoven with oral histories from 1947. Some of the biggest influences in her life come from reading works of progressive writers like Amrita Pritam, Sdata Hasan Manto and promoting revival of cultural musical instruments.

She is a global youth ambassador for several charities, including A World At School.