Israa Khan

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Her growth in music has been influenced by almost everything under the sun. Israa was born in Kuwait but is from Chennai, Tamil Nadu. She feels honored by a somewhat mixed cultural background.
Creativity and expression runs in her blood from her maternal grandmother’s clever crafts to her own mother’s vibrant and distinguished art. Her parents and brother have continually encouraged her interest in music ever since she was 6 when she started learning the piano and basic musical notation. The clarinet followed at age 10 and continued for seven more years. Finally, her love for the acoustic guitar arose and she has been playing ever since. She surprises many when she reveals that she is self-taught. Israa’s true love for playing the guitar originated from the stunningly intricate solos of Metallica’s Kirk Hammet and the band’s tracks in Load and Reload. The tunes of Alanis Morissette, Eva Cassidy, the Dixie Chicks and Norah Jones inspired her with their expressive qualities. She did not draw any lines when it came to good music, whatever genre it may be. At the same time, she became deeply moved by the complexities of Hindustani classical music and Urdu ghazals. She became a devoted listener of Begum Farida Khanum, Ustad Bismillah Khan, Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia and Begum Parween Sultana.
She began doing simple covers of the songs that meant the most to her. She tried her luck one night at singing Eva Cassidy’s ‘Fields of Gold’ at a small gathering on a New Year’s Eve celebration. Minutes after the performance was pin-drop silence- it was the sound of awe. With no formal vocal training, Israa realized true potential in herself. With the support from her parents, she began Hindustani classical vocal training with the renowned ghazal singer, Mahima Kasewa. Her performance of Faiyyaz Hashmi’s ‘Aaj Jaane Ki Zid Na Karo’ was unforgettable.
After moving to the United States for higher education studies in Psychology and Business Management, Israa began to seriously compose, arrange and write her own music and lyrics. She insists that “it was inevitable….after being absolutely gobsmacked by a series of life changing experiences, music not only became my own expression, but it became my dedication to something higher”. It is evident through her simple, yet expressive melodies; that there is a shade of the supernatural that she skirts around.
Most of her songs being and end with the enigmatic drone of the tanpura, which she believes captures the essence of the journey she takes us on. ‘Rain’ takes us through the frustrations of ideologies, ‘Black Pearls’ , being heavily influenced by acoustic folk, takes us through [literally] the eyes of Laila’s spiritual enlightenment in the most unlikely circumstances. And finally, Rooh-e-Parwaaz (Farsi for The Flight of the Soul), truly a marriage of eastern and western tunes, takes us on a mystical ride through the beginning of the afterlife- A song heavily influenced by Sufi mysticism and the entrancing voice of Begum Abida Parveen.
Israa is currently working on a few more covers and compositions in order to independently produce her first CD. She has ambitious goals of devoting a second CD to her most favorite ghazals. She continues to perform her compositions in the US and Kuwait, master the Urdu language and learn masterpieces by Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Daagh and Ghalib.