Education

Questions carried
through song.

The poetry attributed to Kabir, a fifteenth-century North Indian mystic poet, asks direct questions about truth, identity, courage, belonging, and how we live. Living Songs education programs begin with sung poetry and expand through translation, dialogue, movement, and reflection.

University collaborations

Performance becomes inquiry

Programs have brought live performance and guided conversation into university classrooms, concert halls, and community spaces in India and the United States.

Concert with context

North Indian contemplative songs are presented with concise introductions and English translation so audiences can follow the poetry while encountering the music on its own terms.

Lecture-demonstration

A sung poem is approached as literature, oral memory, musical form, philosophical inquiry, and community inheritance.

Residency and collaboration

Class visits, workshops, performance, and conversation can connect South Asian studies, religious studies, music, literature, philosophy, translation, and contemplative studies.

University record

Kabir in the classroom

Song, oral learning, and contextual conversation at the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur in 2026.

Performance becomes inquiryIndian Institute of Technology Kharagpur · 2026

Work with children

Kabir with curiosity

Children can encounter complex ideas through melody, rhythm, image, play, movement, and honest questions.

Learning a sung poem

Short, accessible phrases are learned by listening, repeating, keeping rhythm, and singing as a group.

Conversation with the poem

Age-sensitive exploration of images and questions gives children room to form and express their own interpretations.

Movement and attention

Yoga, breath, stillness, and listening connect physical awareness with the experience of sound.

India and abroad

The record includes teaching yoga and Kabir songs to children in Poland, alongside song and conversation with young people in other settings.

Work with children · selected record

Young voices, treated with care

These photographs document music, yoga, listening, movement, and collective learning with children in Jaipur, India, and Kraków, Poland.

Children taking part in a shared song-learning session in Jaipur
Learning through songParticipatory music session with children · Jaipur, India.
Children learning contemplative songs together in Jaipur
Collective voiceTeaching children through melody and attentive repetition · Jaipur, India.
A music learning circle with children in Jaipur
The learning circleSong, rhythm, and conversation · Jaipur, India.
Children taking part in music and yoga learning in Kraków
Music and movementTeaching music and yoga to schoolchildren · Kraków, Poland.
A participatory learning session with children in Kraków
Learning across culturesA participatory program with children · Kraków, Poland.

Published with permission.