BIOGRAPHY

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MUSIC IS AN ABSTRACT FORCE THAT YOU CAN’T TOUCH

symphony as his soul, he persists to enrich himself

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Music is a form of invocation uniting people everywhere, transcending language, time and race- rhythm building at a pace that will transform almost any place into a sacred space. One such form most prevalent in the contemporary era is Ghazal-Gayaki and one of the prominent flag bearers of this classical, perceptive yet metaphysical art form is Sunil Kumar. This small town youngster from Malout with no harmonious background has made himself eternal through his Gazal-Gayaki. Sunil Kumar has his roots deeply entrenched into Punjabi culture with the family firm of Punjabi Shoe Making, an art form that requires precision and devotion to turn it into a family legacy. An enthusiastic and curious pupil laid the first stone when he found his way to the admirable Satpal Bhundar and Vinod Khurana for his introductory phases of training in music; little did he know that one day he would have to take the responsibility of holding up one of the most prominent art forms of music on his shoulders. Currently, Sunil is under the masterly guidance of Dr. Yashpal Sharma belonging to the Indore Gharana of music, PU, Patiala with a never-ceasing zeal to constantly improve himself.

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If Gazal-Gayaki is a portrait, he aims the Picasso of it. His voyage began at Prachin Kala Kendra, Chandigarh where he got the SangeetVishard that is the certificate of proficiency in the domain of music. He graduated from Panjab University, Chandigarh in the year 2007, he did his Masters in Music from the Department of Music, Punjabi University Patiala in the batch of 2010-12 with a whopping 77 percentile. With symphony as his soul, he persists to enrich himself with understanding associated with harmony, pursuing his M.Phil in music from the Department of Music in the same prestigious organization in the years 2012-2014. Presently he is enrolled in Ph.D. with the Department of music, Punjabi University Patiala on the topic “The Execution of Ghazal Style Singing in Hindi Film music: A multi-dimensional analysis”. Sunil is not only talented, he is obsessed with music. He firmly reckons that music is the reason he is alive, that is why his heart has ‘Beats’.

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Music is an abstract force that you can’t touch, but the music he composes not only touches people’s hearts who comprehend the language but calming to the people from all around the globe, his music and his mesmerizing compositions take over even where the possibility of language ends. In his never-ending list of accomplishments during his early days in the area of music, he took part in University Festivals at Zonal and Inter-zonal level in the event of ‘Ghazal Singing’, ‘Group song’, ‘Classical Vocal (Indian) and won two First prize andit a Third prize respectively. He earned a reputation when he convincingly won the ‘Shining Star Award’ 2015 at the third Heritage Festival in his home town Malout by the City Awareness Society. Sunil has invariably been a firm believer that hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard; hence he actively took part in various Sufi and Ghazal concerts organized by several organizations.

Sunil, with hard work, tough choices, and persistence bloomed from struggling, singing on a job at Part-time grounds in evening sessions at a local family restaurant RCHEF, Patiala for survival to performing at global tier. He has been a part of the solo Ghazal Show ‘Kaavshar’ and ‘Punjab Kara’nkiSifat Teri’ telecasted at DD National in July 2014 and Doordarshan in November 2015. He collected the ‘Best Playback Singer’, a theatre award organized by Radiance Manch at NaatShala Amritsar for the play ’Sundari’ a well-renowned play in the local tongue overseen by one of the greatest directors in the room of drama LakhaLehri. He has also paid his tributes to the art of harmony at the regional “Saras Fair” held in Patiala in October 2012.

He has a wide spectrum of experience working as a music director, first with Neti Theatre Group, Patiala and then Sarthak Rangmanch, Patiala where he harmonized 30 shows of 2 plays for the first and more than 45 shows of 2 plays for the latter. This one of a kind lyrical pilgrimage of music took its next halt at the International Conference in Punjabi University Patiala. He shrouded the occasion with his advanced well-earned craft of Gazal-Gayaki. Sunil even represented the art form of Ghazal at the World Book Fair in 2019. He has graced many national and international platforms with his exquisite command in the classical art form.

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He is the melodious mouthpiece behind the two of the multi-artist album ‘Aamad-The Arrival’ launched under the banner of Sabrang International, a popular UK based sound recording and music and video publishing house. Sabrang International puts forth the first HD audio Ghazal album to its listeners recorded with the finest musicians known to kind in the domain of Ghazal-Gayaki. The whole album was mixed and mastered in the United Kingdom by the second-to-none engineers with an assurance to deliver one of a kind magical music experience. Sunil played an important role in the album getting nominated in the category of the best album in Artist Aloud Music Awards. He visited the royal soil of the UK in 2019 for a month for the promotion of the album ‘Aamad-The Arrival’ financed by Sabrang International itself. Sunil came out on top as he finished first with the ‘Best Ghazal’ award for his single ‘Ehbaab’ at the 6th Artist Aloud Music Awards that took place in Mumbai.

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Sunil along with Neha Dogra made history by performing a concert at Kala Bhawan, Punjabi University Patiala devoted to Amrita Pritam on her 100th birth anniversary organized by the Department of Punjabi, Patiala and Punjab Art Council, Chandigarh. It was the first time that someone made an effort to compose the greatest name of all times in the list of female poetess of Punjabi language. A legend in the domain of Ghazal writing, Gurtej Koharwala narrated and Sunil along with Neha recited the Ghazals/Geets penned by the Legend Amrita Pritam. This experiment was a huge success which could be seen from the never-ending round of applause they got afterward. The greatness of Sunil’s capabilities is depicted in the fact that he has successfully composed all the towering Giants when it comes to penning down Ghazals such as Vijay Vivek, Dr. Jagtar, Kavinder Chand, Barjinder Chowhan, Gursharan Singh Ajeeb, Shiv Kumar Batalvi, Koharwala and even new but established name like Wahid, Balkar Aulakh, Shiv Raj Ludhianvi. These Ghazals are accessible on his official YouTube named as ‘Sunil Sajal’ channel where he is constantly active in not only taking part but taking over the genre of fusion of the traditional Ghazal and the modern-day musical techniques. It is a memoir of all his bewildering feats and is an indication of his fusion of Punjabi, Hindi and Urdu poetry with modern music that he has attained with the modern age electronic media. People admire him as a level-headed man with a blessing that he nurtured into a gift. He provides you with Soul food in an era where people are obsessed with eye candies. Sunil is a blend of skills with intellect. Sunil never did let go of an opportunity to deliver his dues to the field of music. He has also penned down various Research Papers on Music, which was also published in international journals.