Kiran Ahluwalia was in her early 20s the first time her future flashed before her eyes.
"I had just graduated from university and was working in a credit union," said the Indo-Canadian musician in a phone interview last week from New York City. "I thought, if I continue on this path I'm going to meet a guy, get settled, have a house in the suburbs with dusty-rose-colored carpets because that is what will be in fashion."
Determined to avoid such an existence, Ahluwalia quit her job in Toronto to pursue music, specifically the ancient genre known as ghazal (pronounced "guzzle") full time.
Ahluwalia was raised on and had studied ghazals — a poetry style set to traditional and contemporary instruments that spread from Persia to the Indian sub-continent in the early 14th century — through much of her childhood.
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There was no question that, if she was going to take the leap, ghazal music would be the way to go, Ahluwalia said.
"It is an extremely emotional genre of music," she said. "The poetry involved is very imaginative and beautiful. Even as a child, when I didn't understand the words, I would still sit there for three-hour performances and not get bored. I was the only child in the audience, but I never told my parents 'let's go home' because I loved it."
Today, Ahluwalia is a premier musician in her field and one of only a handful of North American artists who composes her own works.
Ahluwalia had not planned to write her own material. She began creating ghazals after receiving a poem from her mother passed down from her great uncle.
The piece became the first of many adaptations with works primarily coming from Indo-Canadian artists writing in the ghazal style.
"There is such a dearth of classics available that even at first I had no need to compose," she said. "I could spend a lifetime trying to perfect the ones already out there. But by a fluke I started discovering poems, and when people heard my compositions they encouraged me to compose more."
Ahluwalia will bring both her original compositions and traditional ghazal works as well as a selection of Punjabi folk songs when she comes through Solar Culture on Monday on her first official tour through Arizona. The singer says her core audiences consist of people familiar with the music, but she tries to make the performances accessible to everyone.
"I get a lot of people from the community that speak the language," she said. "But then there are the South Asians from India and Pakistan who know this music from their parents but don't understand the words. When I perform I usually have a little bit of the story about each song so people have an idea of what the song is about. At one point I have the audience sing along to get a taste of what this music is really like."
● Kiran Ahluwalia in concert
When: 8 p.m. Monday
Where: Solar Culture, 31 E. Toole Ave.
Cost: $15. 884-0874
More online: Sample Ahluwalia's music online at www.kiranmusic.com/Listen.htm
