Chapter · Lineage
A living science
of sound.
The tradition behind the work — a three-decade institution, four university programmes, and forty years of research into how sound shapes the human experience.
A Historic Record
1469 - 1708
The tradition Professor Singh carries did not begin with him. Gurmat Kirtan emerged within the Sikh lineage between 1469 and 1708 — 239 years of public practice through which a pre-Vedic approach to sound was refined, tested, and transmitted across communities, cultures, and boundaries of every kind. It predates and transcends the religious categories through which it is often seen. It is, at its root, a science — one that the modern world is only now developing the instruments to measure.
Not a museum
but a practice
Gurmat Kirtan is one of the world's oldest continuous traditions of applied sound. For more than five centuries it has been transmitted teacher to student — a working body of knowledge concerned with how sound shapes attention, emotion, and the inner life of the human being.
Professor Singh's life's work has been to carry this tradition forward — not as a preservationist protecting an artifact, but as a scholar bringing a living science into rooms where it is urgently needed. Universities. Parliaments. Healthcare systems. Conferences where modern questions about attention, emotion, and human performance are being asked without the benefit of what the tradition already knows.
What follows is a record of that work — the institution he founded, the academic programmes he built, the instruments he restored, the recordings he produced, and the documentary and broadcast projects through which the tradition has reached new audiences.
Founded in 1994, Raj Academy is the non-profit research and education institution through which Professor Singh's life's work has been carried out. Today, more than three decades on, it operates across three countries, trains a global community of teachers and researchers, and maintains the largest active archive of work in the tradition anywhere in the world.
It is the reason his scholarship is not only his own — it is part of an institution with a record.
UNITED STATES
Registered 501(c)(3)
non-profit
CANADA
Registered 1778935-1
non-profit
Three university programmes,
built where none existed.
In partnership with the University of West London, Professor Surinder Singh designed and launched three accredited academic programmes — including the world's first degrees in their fields.
1999
BTEC National Diploma
Edexcel
United Kingdom
2004
Bachelor of Music in
Gurmat Kirtan
University of West London · the world's first
2010
Master's Degree in
Naad Yoga
University of West London · the world's first
In 2006, the University of West London conferred on Professor Surinder Singh a Professorship in Musicology, in recognition of this work.
The original
instruments.
Professor Surinder Singh has revived and reintroduced the instruments of the tradition — restoring their role in contemporary practice after centuries of decline, and securing their place in the sound canon for the next generation.
Rabab
Saranda
Jori
Dilruba
Sarangi
Taus
Selected
recordings.
A body of work spanning a quarter-century — archival projects, first-in-centuries recordings, and compositions dedicated to specific applications of sound.
2001 Mere Mun
The world's largest album-form archive of 59 Raags from Sri Guru Granth Sahib — a foundational act of preservation.
2014 Aartee - Anthem for the Universe
A composition conceived as a universal unvocation, extending the tradition's devotional form to a contemporary audience.
2022 Vaar Aasaa - Wisdom of Life
The world's largest album-form archive of 59 Raags from Sri Guru Granth Sahib — a foundational act of preservation.
2025 Sohila - Sweet Nights
A work composed for the support of those living with insomnia and dementia — sound applied, specifically, as care.
A story, untold.
Professor Surinder Singh's feature documentary Sikh Musical Heritage: The Untold Story brought the tradition's rich cultural record to a global audience for the first time — its premieres drawing audiences to the work's depth, its scholarship, and the living science it carries.
NEW YORK · 2017
VANCOUVER · 2018
Two years on air.
From 2012, Professor Surinder Singh's seventy-two-episode series The Living Guru & Sabd Guru aired on Zee Panjabi — in both English and Punjabi, for over two years — bringing the scholarship of the tradition to a general audience of millions.
72
Episodes
2
Languages
2+
Years on air
Four decades of work.
1994 — 2026. A life's work, in the order in which it was done.
Raj Academy is founded
The institution that will carry the work for the next three decades and more.
1994
1999
BTec National Diploma
Established with Edexcel, United Kingdom
Mere Mun released
Archival work presenting 59 raags from Sri Guru Granth Sahib ji.
2001
2004
World's first Bachelor of Music in Gurmat Kirtan
Launched in partnership with the University of West London.
PTC Award for Anhad
Beyond Sound.
1994
2006
Professorship in Musicology
Conferred by the University of West London
World's first Master's degree in Naad Yoga
University of West London.
2010
2012
Raj Academy opens US chapter
Registered 501(c)(3). Broadcast of The Living Guru & Sabd Guru begins on Zee Panjabi — a 72-episode series
Vaar Aasaa - first recording in 300+ years
Presented as originally composed in Sri Guru Granth Sahib.
2014
2016
Raj Academy Webschool
Online learning platform extends the institution worldwide.
Sikh Musical Heritage - world premiere
Sikh Art and Film Festival, New York.
2017
2018
Audience Choice Award
Vancouver International South Asian Film Festival.
Rababi Outreach programme
Accessible group-based learning in Kirtan.
2021
2025
Sohila - Sweet Nights
A work offered to those living with insomnia and dementia
Raj Academy opens Canada Chapter
Registered 1778935-1.
2026
An Alchemy of Sound
Published by the Smithsonian Institution and Roli Publications.
And the journey continues ...
"Be the master, if you wish to avoid the disaster."
- Professor Surinder Singh
