Vandana Vishwas
Classical - Indian - Songwriter - Vocal - World
From Mississauga, Ontario
BIO
Born and raised in India, settled in Canada, Vandana Vishwas is an architect by profession and a musician by passion. She is formally trained in North Indian classical vocal music but specializes in composing and singing expressive Sugam-Sangeet (Easy Listening Music) comprising south-Asian song forms such as Ghazals, Nazms, Geet, light Thumris etc.. Although blessed with a divine gift of musical creativity and a mesmerizing voice since early childhood, Vandana has had to overcome serious physical challenges caused by a painful permanent injury to her hip joint in an unfortunate medical negligence right after she was born.
Vandana has been lauded by the critics for her expressive & crystalline voice (Errol Nazareth, Toronto Sun), simplicity, sincerity & crisp diction (Savia Rajgopal, Mybindi.com), gently gliding entrancing vocals (Andrew Frey, Maximum Ink Music Magazine), tenderness towards melody and lyrics (John Goddard, The Toronto Star) and many other qualities by various other reviewers and critics. 'It's almost as if Vandana was the second coming of Lata…' (Alastair Johnston, muzikifan.com).
Her debut music album ‘Meera-The Lover…’ released in 2009, created wide ranging ripples in Canadian & US World Music circles through rave reviews from leading music critics and some much coveted awards such as the Vox-Pop award for World Traditional Song of the year at US Indies (IMA) 2011, Mississauga Arts Council's Martty Award for Established Performing Arts 2012 and Toronto Best World CD award by Toronto Exclusive Magazine. She was also nominated for leading Canadian awards such as the Canadian Indies 2010 alongside Grammy winning Alex Cuba and Juno Laureates Sultans of Strings, Toronto Independent Music Awards alongside leading World Music band Jaffa Road and the much coveted K.M. Hunter award for music by Ontario Arts Council. Songs from the album debuted at Top 10 in diverse community FMs all over Canada and stayed there for weeks. She was featured by leading newspapers, magazines, radio and TV stations, despite being an independent artist with no label or artist manager or booking agent working for her. Through word of mouth and sheer merit, she got handpicked for prestigious events such as the Toronto Harbourfront Centre Summer Festival Hot Spot 2010, Masala Mehndi Masti 2009, Culture days Takes 2 and 3, Mississauga 2011 & 2012, Latin-Afro-South Asian Cultural concert by LCCA Toronto and the numerous community concerts for organizations such as Sacred Arts & Music Alliance (SAMA) etc.
Now she has come up with her sophomore music album ‘Monologues’, that takes musical creativity to a new level by redefining the treatment of traditional south Asian song forms such as Ghazals, Nazms, Geet & Thumri with some interesting western influences. With her husband Vishwas penning down seven of the nine songs in the CD and the other two being written by ghazal immortals Jigar Muradabadi and Mirza Ghalib, the album promises to be a treat for lovers of music and poetry alike. Like the first one, this album is also co-produced by Vandana and Vishwas.
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Gigs
Musideum - Toronto, Ontario Canada - Sunday, April 14, 2013
Divine Light Awakening Society - Divya Arts concert - Hamilton, Ontario Canada - Saturday, March 23, 2013
Miles Nadal Jewish Cultural Centre - SAMA Concert - Toronto, Ontario Canada - Sunday, March 17, 2013
Ajivasan Hall - Mumbai, India - Saturday, February 9, 2013
Sampradaya Auditorium - Mississauga, Ontario Canada - Sunday, January 20, 2013
Artword Artbar - Hamilton, Ontario Canada - Saturday, January 19, 2013
Musideum - Living Room Concert Series - Toronto, Ontario Canada - Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Bradley Museum - Culture Days 2012 - Mississauga, Ontario Canada - Saturday, September 29, 2012
Westdale United Church - SAMA - Hamilton, Ontario Canada - Sunday, January 22, 2012
Trinity-St. Paul Center - SAMA Concert - Toronto, Ontario Canada - Saturday, November 19, 2011
Celebration Square - Culture Days - Mississauga, Ontario Canada - Saturday, October 1, 2011
Chinguacousy Secondary School Auditorium, Divya Sugam Sangeet concert - Brampton, Ontario Canada - Saturday, June 18, 2011
J. Clarke Richardson Auditorium, SAMA Concert - Ajax, Ontario Canada - Sunday, May 15, 2011
Eternal Spring Church, Multifaith Music - Hamilton, Ontario Canada - Saturday, January 1, 2011
The Trane Studio - Latin-Afro-South Asian Music Festival - Toronto, Ontario Canada - Saturday, October 30, 2010
The Harbourfront Centre - Worldroutes Summer Festival - Toronto, Ontario Canada - Saturday, July 3, 2010
Michael Power Auditorium - Harmony Concert - Etobicoke, Ontario Canada - Saturday, May 29, 2010
St. Francis Xavier Secondary School Auditorium - SAMA Concert for Art of Living Foundation - Mississauga, Ontario Canada - Saturday, March 27, 2010
Living Arts Centre Park - Diwali - Mississauga, Ontario Canada - Sunday, October 11, 2009
The Exhibition Place, Fountainhead Dining Room - Masala! Mehndi! Masti! - Toronto, Ontario Canada - Saturday, July 25, 2009
Band Members
Vandana Vishwas Vishwas Thoke Jasvinder Hunjan Raya BidayeDiscography
Monologues
Indie, 2013
Meera - The lover
Indie, 2009