There are actually two Sarb Akal Music Societies. One is the local, East Calgary Indian music academy that had seven students show up the first day they opened in Forest Lawn in 2009. Offering lessons in tabla, sitar, and other classical Indian instruments, they now have about 50 students.
The second Sarb Akal Music Society is a digital clone of the first one, also based in the Forest Lawn home of Bhai Harjeet Singh, but it promotes, teaches and speaks to an Indian classical music scene that is global, growing—and awesome.
That’s what Arts in Action discovered upon meeting with Singh, Sarb Akal General Secretary Pyush Vyas, and Executive Director of Fund Development and Growth Vipul Jasani in early June for an interview.
The organization is really the passion project of Singh, a tabla player that’s been transformed, through Singh’s single-minded passion, a supportive Calgary community, and exponential growth due in large part to the emergence of social media, into a multimedia, global music hub whose reach extends well beyond the 403 area code.
Exhibit A: The Sarb Arkal YouTube channel, which has over 23,000 subscribers.
“And 200 new signups each day,” exclaims Jasani.
There’s a weekly radio show, Tuesday from 6:00 to 7:00pm, on 94.7 FM.
“We only talk about music. No politics,” says Vyas, who is also a tabla player.
There is a yearly international music festival, which brings in the top Indian classical musicians from around the world, to perform at venues such as the Bella Concert Hall and the Rozsa Centre.
There’s a steady, relentless interaction between musicians, who live in India, London, South Africa, and Russia, all asking for an invitation to perform at the Indian Classical Music Festival.
And then there’s the story of the young violin player in Medicine Hat, who contacted Singh, asking if there was a way to connect him with a well-known violinist, who lives in India.
Singh—an Uber driver who says he spends $25,000 a year of his own money to fund Sarb Akal— kept persisting, writing to the woman in India. He asked her to come to Calgary to perform at the festival—”The number one Indian classical music festival in North America,” says Jasani—but the problem was that the woman was a popular musician, with many performing opportunities, and it’s an 18-hour flight from India to Alberta.
She said no.
Singh kept in touch, telling her about the young violinist from Medicine Hat, about Sarb Akal and about the Calgary classical Indian music community.
Finally, she relented and asked for a tape.
A little while later, Singh received an email.
“I will teach him,” she said. “Free, because you promote Indian classical music.”
She teaches the young violinist on Skype.
It turns out that not only does Sarb Akal stand for everywhere, timeless, immortal and non-temporal, but it also stands for the digital landing spot when it comes to Indian classical music—a completely improvised musical form that Pyari describes as light. It’s music that lifts your soul, and your spirit.
It’s also music without a language barrier.
“Whatever language you are speaking, they understand,” says Vyas.
In addition to its annual Classical Indian Music Festival, Sarb Akal plays an active role promoting classical Indian music in Alberta. There was a concert in May at the National Music Centre. There was a Canada Day performance in Prince’s Island Park. There was an invitation to the Alberta Assembly.
There are also plans to incorporate Indigenous artists into the next festival, says Jasani.
“We want to integrate eastern and western music together,” he says.
Sarb Akal YouTube channel | Photo: Courtesy of Sarb Akal
That’s when Singh tells another story about a young couple who were at his home one day, with their six month old baby who was crying and miserable—at which point Singh played him some tabla music, which soothed him and calmed him down.
It quieted the restless baby’s soul.
A few weeks later, Singh received a phone call.
It was from the father of the young baby.
They were home, and the baby was once again, miserable, restless, and agitated.
“Uncle I need that instrument,” he said.
For Singh, who has plowed his earnings into building Sarb Akal for a decade, those are the types of paydays he has received over the past decade.
As it grows in stature, locally, nationally, and internationally, the hope is to transform Sarb Akal into a financially self-sustaining entity.
The music society recently became a registered charity. They have a board, they’re eligible for grants and working hard to raise funds to grow the annual festival–to find a way to imprint Sarb Akal’s identity onto Calgary as much as they have the rest of the planet.
Until then, Singh continues to do 10-hour days on Uber, followed by another six with Sarb Akal.
He’s building his own unique kind of equity, as a one-man brand preaching the joy of Indian classical music.
“I don’t have money in my pocket,” he says, “but I am a rich person in the world.”
Sarb Akal YouTube channel | Photo: Courtesy of Sarb Akal
There are actually two Sarb Akal Music Societies. One is the local, East Calgary Indian music academy that had seven students show up the first day they opened in Forest Lawn in 2009. Offering lessons in tabla, sitar, and other classical Indian instruments, they now have about 50 students. The second Sarb Akal Music Society is a digital clone of the first one, also based in the Forest Lawn home of Bhai Harjeet Singh, but it promotes, teaches and speaks to an Indian classical music scene that is global, growing—and awesome. That’s what Arts in Action discovered upon meeting with Singh, Sarb Akal General Secretary Pyush Vyas, and Executive Director of Fund Development and Growth Vipul Jasani in early June for an interview.
There are actually two Sarb Akal Music Societies. One is the local, East Calgary Indian music academy that had seven students show up the first day they opened in Forest Lawn in 2009. Offering lessons in tabla, sitar, and other classical Indian instruments, they now have about 50 students.
The second Sarb Akal Music Society is a digital clone of the first one, also based in the Forest Lawn home of Bhai Harjeet Singh, but it promotes, teaches and speaks to an Indian classical music scene that is global, growing—and awesome.
That’s what Arts in Action discovered upon meeting with Singh, Sarb Akal General Secretary Pyush Vyas, and Executive Director of Fund Development and Growth Vipul Jasani in early June for an interview.
The organization is really the passion project of Singh, a tabla player that’s been transformed, through Singh’s single-minded passion, a supportive Calgary community, and exponential growth due in large part to the emergence of social media, into a multimedia, global music hub whose reach extends well beyond the 403 area code.
Exhibit A: The Sarb Arkal YouTube channel, which has over 23,000 subscribers.
“And 200 new signups each day,” exclaims Jasani.
There’s a weekly radio show, Tuesday from 6:00 to 7:00pm, on 94.7 FM.
“We only talk about music. No politics,” says Vyas, who is also a tabla player.
There is a yearly international music festival, which brings in the top Indian classical musicians from around the world, to perform at venues such as the Bella Concert Hall and the Rozsa Centre.
There’s a steady, relentless interaction between musicians, who live in India, London, South Africa, and Russia, all asking for an invitation to perform at the Indian Classical Music Festival.
And then there’s the story of the young violin player in Medicine Hat, who contacted Singh, asking if there was a way to connect him with a well-known violinist, who lives in India.
Singh—an Uber driver who says he spends $25,000 a year of his own money to fund Sarb Akal— kept persisting, writing to the woman in India. He asked her to come to Calgary to perform at the festival—”The number one Indian classical music festival in North America,” says Jasani—but the problem was that the woman was a popular musician, with many performing opportunities, and it’s an 18-hour flight from India to Alberta.
She said no.
Singh kept in touch, telling her about the young violinist from Medicine Hat, about Sarb Akal and about the Calgary classical Indian music community.
Finally, she relented and asked for a tape.
A little while later, Singh received an email.
“I will teach him,” she said. “Free, because you promote Indian classical music.”
She teaches the young violinist on Skype.
It turns out that not only does Sarb Akal stand for everywhere, timeless, immortal and non-temporal, but it also stands for the digital landing spot when it comes to Indian classical music—a completely improvised musical form that Pyari describes as light. It’s music that lifts your soul, and your spirit.
It’s also music without a language barrier.
“Whatever language you are speaking, they understand,” says Vyas.
In addition to its annual Classical Indian Music Festival, Sarb Akal plays an active role promoting classical Indian music in Alberta. There was a concert in May at the National Music Centre. There was a Canada Day performance in Prince’s Island Park. There was an invitation to the Alberta Assembly.
There are also plans to incorporate Indigenous artists into the next festival, says Jasani.
“We want to integrate eastern and western music together,” he says.
Sarb Akal YouTube channel | Photo: Courtesy of Sarb Akal
That’s when Singh tells another story about a young couple who were at his home one day, with their six month old baby who was crying and miserable—at which point Singh played him some tabla music, which soothed him and calmed him down.
It quieted the restless baby’s soul.
A few weeks later, Singh received a phone call.
It was from the father of the young baby.
They were home, and the baby was once again, miserable, restless, and agitated.
“Uncle I need that instrument,” he said.
For Singh, who has plowed his earnings into building Sarb Akal for a decade, those are the types of paydays he has received over the past decade.
As it grows in stature, locally, nationally, and internationally, the hope is to transform Sarb Akal into a financially self-sustaining entity.
The music society recently became a registered charity. They have a board, they’re eligible for grants and working hard to raise funds to grow the annual festival–to find a way to imprint Sarb Akal’s identity onto Calgary as much as they have the rest of the planet.
Until then, Singh continues to do 10-hour days on Uber, followed by another six with Sarb Akal.
He’s building his own unique kind of equity, as a one-man brand preaching the joy of Indian classical music.
“I don’t have money in my pocket,” he says, “but I am a rich person in the world.”
Based on data from organizations funded in part through Calgary Arts Development.
Every December, there’s an art festival that is a little bit more than an art festival. It’s a lifeline. That’s what the SPARK Disability Arts Festival has been for over 450 artists with visible and invisible disabilities who have had their work exhibited, and sold, since the festival launched at Studio C back in 2010, says festival director Roxanne Taylor. For the 2018 festival alone, Taylor says SPARK received 191 visual art submissions from around the world. They ended up featuring 85 different works created by 52 artists, each of whom has a different story.
Every December, there’s an art festival that is a little bit more than an art festival.
It’s a lifeline.
That’s what the SPARK Disability Arts Festival has been for over 450 artists with visible and invisible disabilities who have had their work exhibited, and sold, since the festival launched at Studio C back in 2010, says festival director Roxanne Taylor.
For the 2018 festival alone, Taylor says SPARK received 191 visual art submissions from around the world. They ended up featuring 85 different works created by 52 artists, each of whom has a different story.
At the 2015 festival, one of the artists featured was Paula Timm, a woman who went into hospital for laparoscopic surgery to remove her colon, and ended up with an accidentally-severed aorta that caused her to die for a while on the operating table—until she came back to life.
Following that unfortunate series of events, Timm faced a long, uncertain recovery period at home, part of which she dealt with by painting and accessing her creative side.
“I found Studio C actually into my second year of healing,” Timm said, in a 2015 interview with the Calgary Herald. “Their message—in addition to the messages I was following—basically, live a creative life and figure out how to do that.
“Although it’s been a traumatic event,” she says, “what I focus on today is really the blessings that have come from it and the ultimate message that I got from my life-altering surgery was: live life with creativity and joy.”
Paula Timm and her work | Photo: Courtesy of SPARK Disability Arts
According to figures provided by Taylor, 13.7% of Canadian adults experience disability, and one in five faces mental health challenges, yet overall, Canada lags when it comes to providing a platform and exhibition opportunities for artists with disabilities.
The SPARK Festival, she adds, fills in that gap. It’s the largest and longest-running disability arts festival in Calgary.
“We are excited to be at the forefront of this critical movement, providing arts programs and services to marginalized communities with barriers to cultural access,” Taylor said, in an emailed reply to a question.
Festivals such as SPARK, she added, offer participating artists an assortment of benefits, including overcoming under representation in mainstream media and society, helping society to better understand the concept of inclusion and accessibility, provide safe spaces for disability artists to confront—and resist—social stereotypes and stigmas, as well as a chance to earn money—the artists keep 90% of the money the sale of their artwork generates.
Melanie Marcotte’s Mel’s Rainbow Life | Photo: Courtesy of SPARK Disability Arts
For Timm, the catastrophe of that botched surgery that led her to exhibiting her work at SPARK changed her life, in all the right ways.
She left a career in oil and gas, when she was chosen as one of the first tenants at cSPACE, the art hub in the King Edward School.
“There are so many different things Calgary has, like the SPARK Disability Festival, Studio C, Calgary Arts Development—there are these entry points to get involved, to showcase your art in a very honourable way, in some really cool facilities,” she says.
And along the way, Timm has become a kind of creative mentor for people who drop in to cSPACE, wondering if there’s a way to ignite their own creative lives.
“One person came to a drop-in night I have on Wednesdays, where I get anybody to come in for $20 to participate in some kind of expression activity, whether it’s writing, painting or hanging out and knitting,” she says.
“Whenever someone saunters in, I give them the cSPACE spiel—and when they left, someone said don’t you get tired of giving that? And I said no. It fuels me. It inspires me. That’s why I didn’t want a studio with no public facing environment.
“The fact that I get to keep encouraging others—whether it’s to help them or help them think, okay, art is not that scary. It’s a place for us to play, and wonder, and experience even as non-professional artists.”
For Taylor, the most surprising aspect of her job is the exceptional quality of the submissions for each subsequent SPARK Festival.
“I’m not so much surprised, but rather always impressed by the incredible quality of artwork that is submitted to SPARK,” she says. “The festival accepts a broad range of two- and three-dimensional media, and I love to see the diversity of works submitted. We’ve exhibited everything from photography, drawing, painting, encaustic, found objects, fibre, ceramics and glass to digital and video art.
“As a practicing artist myself, I find each SPARK showcase to be fantastically inspirational. It’s also thrilling to see emerging and established artists represented side-by-side.
“I’m filled with excitement knowing that this talent represents Calgary’s next wave of professionals,” she says. “It’s rewarding for me as a festival producer to create personal connections with the artists, and I feel privileged to be able to share in their life stories.”
Every December, there’s an art festival that is a little bit more than an art festival.
It’s a lifeline.
That’s what the SPARK Disability Arts Festival has been for over 450 artists with visible and invisible disabilities who have had their work exhibited, and sold, since the festival launched at Studio C back in 2010, says festival director Roxanne Taylor.
For the 2018 festival alone, Taylor says SPARK received 191 visual art submissions from around the world. They ended up featuring 85 different works created by 52 artists, each of whom has a different story.
At the 2015 festival, one of the artists featured was Paula Timm, a woman who went into hospital for laparoscopic surgery to remove her colon, and ended up with an accidentally-severed aorta that caused her to die for a while on the operating table—until she came back to life.
Following that unfortunate series of events, Timm faced a long, uncertain recovery period at home, part of which she dealt with by painting and accessing her creative side.
“I found Studio C actually into my second year of healing,” Timm said, in a 2015 interview with the Calgary Herald. “Their message—in addition to the messages I was following—basically, live a creative life and figure out how to do that.
“Although it’s been a traumatic event,” she says, “what I focus on today is really the blessings that have come from it and the ultimate message that I got from my life-altering surgery was: live life with creativity and joy.”
Paula Timm and her work | Photo: Courtesy of SPARK Disability Arts
According to figures provided by Taylor, 13.7% of Canadian adults experience disability, and one in five faces mental health challenges, yet overall, Canada lags when it comes to providing a platform and exhibition opportunities for artists with disabilities.
The SPARK Festival, she adds, fills in that gap. It’s the largest and longest-running disability arts festival in Calgary.
“We are excited to be at the forefront of this critical movement, providing arts programs and services to marginalized communities with barriers to cultural access,” Taylor said, in an emailed reply to a question.
Festivals such as SPARK, she added, offer participating artists an assortment of benefits, including overcoming under representation in mainstream media and society, helping society to better understand the concept of inclusion and accessibility, provide safe spaces for disability artists to confront—and resist—social stereotypes and stigmas, as well as a chance to earn money—the artists keep 90% of the money the sale of their artwork generates.
Melanie Marcotte’s Mel’s Rainbow Life | Photo: Courtesy of SPARK Disability Arts
For Timm, the catastrophe of that botched surgery that led her to exhibiting her work at SPARK changed her life, in all the right ways.
She left a career in oil and gas, when she was chosen as one of the first tenants at cSPACE, the art hub in the King Edward School.
“There are so many different things Calgary has, like the SPARK Disability Festival, Studio C, Calgary Arts Development—there are these entry points to get involved, to showcase your art in a very honourable way, in some really cool facilities,” she says.
And along the way, Timm has become a kind of creative mentor for people who drop in to cSPACE, wondering if there’s a way to ignite their own creative lives.
“One person came to a drop-in night I have on Wednesdays, where I get anybody to come in for $20 to participate in some kind of expression activity, whether it’s writing, painting or hanging out and knitting,” she says.
“Whenever someone saunters in, I give them the cSPACE spiel—and when they left, someone said don’t you get tired of giving that? And I said no. It fuels me. It inspires me. That’s why I didn’t want a studio with no public facing environment.
“The fact that I get to keep encouraging others—whether it’s to help them or help them think, okay, art is not that scary. It’s a place for us to play, and wonder, and experience even as non-professional artists.”
For Taylor, the most surprising aspect of her job is the exceptional quality of the submissions for each subsequent SPARK Festival.
“I’m not so much surprised, but rather always impressed by the incredible quality of artwork that is submitted to SPARK,” she says. “The festival accepts a broad range of two- and three-dimensional media, and I love to see the diversity of works submitted. We’ve exhibited everything from photography, drawing, painting, encaustic, found objects, fibre, ceramics and glass to digital and video art.
“As a practicing artist myself, I find each SPARK showcase to be fantastically inspirational. It’s also thrilling to see emerging and established artists represented side-by-side.
“I’m filled with excitement knowing that this talent represents Calgary’s next wave of professionals,” she says. “It’s rewarding for me as a festival producer to create personal connections with the artists, and I feel privileged to be able to share in their life stories.”
Paula Timm and her work | Photo: Courtesy of SPARK Disability Arts
Based on data from organizations funded in part through Calgary Arts Development.
Fireflies at Twilight | Photo: Courtesy of Calgary Municipal Land Corporation
Fireflies at Twilight was a temporary mural installation on land provided by Calgary Municipal Land Corporation (CMLC) as a way to activate the street level and bring people into Victoria Park. The special containR installation was created in honour of the land and people of Treaty 7 Territory. Inspired by Siksika First Nation Chief Crowfoot’s quote What is Life?, the project was spearheaded by non-profit arts organization Springboard Performance in collaboration with Governor General Award winning Siksika artist Adrian Stimson who created an inspiring visual interpretation of the quote on a mural installation comprising two 40-foot shipping containers.
Calgary Queer Arts Society exists to give voice to queer people and their stories. Historically, LGBTQ2A+ individuals have been suppressed, deprived of power, misrepresented, and often overlooked by institutional support systems. They are committed to transforming this reality, and will continue to work passionately towards an inclusive future for all people. The arts are an integral part of this story. Storytelling connects us all, dissolves our differences and breaks down barriers, so that we can find aspects of ourselves in others, and of others in ourselves. These stories are important to Calgary, which is why this group is committed to creating and sharing the narratives that shape us.