The Boston Chapter

The Boston Massachusetts Chapter is the founding chapter of the Gurmat Sangeet Project. It is closely associated with the New England Sikh Study Circle, the Gurdwara Sahib at Milford. The Gurmat Sangeet Project grew out of the Kirtan teaching program at the Milford Gurdwara, which was started in the fall of 2001 by Sarbpreet Singh. The first students were Gurleen Kaur, Amrit Kaur, Simranjit Singh, Vijayant Singh, Mehr Kaur, Shagun Kaur and Avneet Kaur. The number of students has grown considerably from 2001 to 2002; there are now five Kirtan classes that are taught by Devinder Singh Rekhi, Ritu Singh & Sarbpreet Singh, ranging from an introductory class for five year olds to the advanced class in which shabads have been taught already in multiple Ragas such as Yaman Kalyan, Bilaval, Ahlaiya Bilaval, Bhupali, Bhinn Shadja, Bhairav, Ahir Bhairav, Basant, Bahar, Miyan Ki Malhar, Megh Malhar, Kedara, Tilang, Bihagda, Brindabani Sarang, Asavari, Bhairavi, Malkauns, Paraj, Basant Hindol and Darbari Kanada.

The Milford Kids Jatha has been participating in Kirtan programs for over a year now. It has offered Kirtan Seva during special Gurpurab celebrations at both the Milford and the Millis Gurdwaras. In addition the Kids regularly offer Kirtan Seva at both Millis and Milford in the first half hour of the weekly Friday evening program.

One of the crowning achievements for the Kids Jatha last year was participation in an Interfaith Vigil Against Hate, organized by an interfaith group in Boston at the Universalist Unitarian Church on Beacon Hill on October 9, 2002. The Milford Kids Jatha sang the shabad "Bisar Gayi Sabh Taat Parayi" in Raga Asavari during the vigil.

On January 28, 2003 at the Interfaith Witness for Peace with Iraq, held at the Trinity Boston Church, Amrit Kaur and Mehr Kaur sang the shabad "Jagat Jalanda Rakh Lai, Apni Kirpa Dhar", in Rage Darbari Kanada before an audience of 1300 people of various faiths, united by their desire for peace.

On March 8 2003, all the kids worked extrmely hard to prepare shabads in Ragas Basant, Baharand Basant Hindol and participated in the Boston Basant Raga Samagam held at the Milford Gurdwara.

In April the kids offerd Kirtan seva at Baisakhi celebrations at the Millis and Milford Gurdwaras as well as Boston University.

Amrit Kaur
		Amrit Kaur is 11 years old. She was one of the first students in the Gurmat Sangeet Project. She has been studying Gurmat Sangeet for about two years and has learned several shabads. She has offered Kirtan Seva at both the Milford and Millis Gurdwaras during Gurpurb celebrations. She also led the Milford Gurdwara kids Jatha at an Interfaith Vigil against hate, organized at the Unitarian Church in Boston on October 9 2002. Amrit also represented the Sikh community at the Interfaith Witness for Peace at the Trinity Boston Church on February 28, 2003. Amrit is an excellent speaker and has won prizes in local speech competitions.
Avneet Kaur
		Avneet Kaur is 8 years old. . She has been studying Gurmat Sangeet for over a year and has learned several shabads. She has offered Kirtan Seva at both the Milford and Millis Gurdwaras during Guru Nanak Dev Ji's Parkash Purab in 2002. She was a member of the Milford Gurdwara kids Jatha that participated in the Interfaith Vigil against hate, organized in Boston on October 9 2002. Avneet is a voracious reader and one of the first kids in the group to read all the Harry Potter books.
Gurleen Kaur
		Gurleen Kaur is 13 years old. She was one of the first students in the Gurmat Sangeet Project. She has been studying Gurmat Sangeet for over two years and has learned many shabads. She has offered Kirtan Seva at both the Milford and Millis Gurdwaras during Gurpurb celebrations. She was a leading member of the Milford Gurdwara kids Jatha that participated in the Interfaith Vigil against hate, organized in Boston on October 9, 2002. Gurleen has a great sense of humor and an endless supply of wisecracks.
Mehr Kaur
		Mehr Kaur is 9 years old. She was one of the first students in the Gurmat Sangeet Project. She has been studying Gurmat Sangeet for about two years and has learned several shabads. She has offered Kirtan Seva at both the Milford and Millis Gurdwaras during Gurpurb celebrations. She was a member of the Milford Gurdwara kids Jatha that participated in the Interfaith Vigil against hate, organized in Boston on October 9 2002. Mehr also represented the Sikh community at the Interfaith Witness for Peace at the Trinity Boston Church on February 28, 2003.Mehr also studies ballet and plays soccer.
Shagun Kaur
		Shagun Kaur is 10 years old. She was one of the first students in the Gurmat Sangeet Project. She has been studying Gurmat Sangeet for about two years and has learned several shabads. She has offered Kirtan Seva at both the Milford and Millis Gurdwaras during during Gurpurb celebrations. Shagun is an excellent creative writer and has won many awards at writing.
Simranjit Singh
		Simranjit Singh is 12 years old. He was one of the first students in the Gurmat Sangeet Project. He has been studying Gurmat Sangeet for about one year and has learned several shabads. He has offered Kirtan Seva at both the Milford and Millis Gurdwaras during Gurpurb celebrations. He was a member of the Milford Gurdwara kids Jatha that participated in the Interfaith Vigil against hate, organized in Boston on October 9 2002. Simran is an aggressive soccer player and plays basketball as well.
Vijayant Singh
		Vijayant Singh is 12 years old. He was one of the first students in the Gurmat Sangeet Project. He has been studying Gurmat Sangeet for about one year and has learned many shabads. He has offered Kirtan Seva at both the Milford and Millis Gurdwaras during Gurpurb celebrations. He was a member of the Milford Gurdwara kids Jatha that participated in the Interfaith Vigil against hate, organized in Boston on October 9 2002. This picture is not an optical illusion; Vijayant is Simran's identical twin and enjoys soccer and basketball as well.
Baljot Kaur
		Baljot Kaur is 7 years old. . She has been studying Gurmat Sangeet for more than a year and has learned several shabads. She has offered Kirtan Seva at both the Milford and Millis Gurdwaras during during Gurpurb celebrations. Baljot is also know as Chottay Phenji.
Jeeti Kaur
		Jeeti Kaur, who is 14, has been studying with the Gurmat Sangeet project for a few months now. She participated in the Basant Raga Samagam. Blessed with a powerful voice, Jeeti is very ambitous and loves to take on the challenge of learning 'difficult' shabads. Jeeti loves to play soccer.
Harsheen Kaur
		Harsheen Kaur, who is 14, has been studying with the Gurmat Sangeet project for a few months now. She participated in the Basant Raga Samagam. Harsheen has been learning Shabads for several years now at various camps. She is working on a an extremely difficult shabad in slow tempo in Raga Bhimpalasi.
Jasleen Kaur
		Jasleen Kaur, who is 12, has been studying with the Gurmat Sangeet project for a few months now. She participated in the Basant Raga Samagam. Jasleen has been learning Shabads for several years now at various camps. Jasleen is an extremely quick learner and is working on a Shabad in Raga Asa with Gurleen.
Achint Kaur
		Achint Kaur, who is 14, has been studying with the Gurmat Sangeet project for a few months now. She participated in the Basant Raga Samagam. Achint has been learning Shabads for several years now at various camps. She is working on a an extremely difficult shabad in slow tempo in Raga Bhimpalasi with Harsheen.
Rajvir Kaur & Sukhvir Kaur
		Rajvir Kaur and Sukhvir Kaur have been blessed with powerful voices and deep love for Gurbani and Kirtan. They have been learning Kirtan for several years from Bhai Swarn Singh Ji and other accomplished Ragis. They are adept at singing Asa Di Var. Their association with the Gurmat Sangeet Project is fairly recent. They participated in the Boston Basant Samagam and are now working on more shabads in the Gurmat Sangeet tradition.
Gurjeet Singh
		Gurjeet Singh, a budding Tabla player is Amritpal Singh's student. Gurjeet is an extremely hard working Tabla player; his skills and repertoire have grown by leaps and bounds over the past two years. Gurjeet is able to play Talas like Tintaal, Iktaal, Dadra, Rupak, Keherva, Soolfak etc. He accompanies the Kids Jatha during weekly and special Diwans.
Amandeep Singh
		Amandeep Singh is 5 years old. He is one of the youngest students participating in the Gurmat Sangeet project. He has learned to identify and sing the seven notes and is working on his first shabad in Raga Bilaval.
Gurtaj Singh
		Gurtaj Singh is 8 years old. He has been studying Gurmat Sangeet for more than six months and has learned several shabads. He has offered Kirtan Seva at both the Milford and Millis Gurdwaras during many Gurpurab celebrations. Gurtaj loves to play soccer and video games !!
Deepinder Singh
		Deep, who is 6 is a young student of the Gurmat Sangeet Project. He has done extremely well to learn Shabads in Raga Bhupali and Bhinn Shadja from the Basic Syllabus of the Gurmat Sangeet Project.
Rahuldeep Singh
		Rahuldeep Singh, 24, is a talented young table player. He is a student of Bhai Amarjit Singh's. Rahuldeep grew up in the Boston area and is now working on a Doctorate in Religious Studies in California. Rahuldeep's father, S. Amrao Singh is an excellent singer and artist. Rahuldeep's tabla accompaniment is featured on several recordings by Bhai Amarjit Singh in the Recordings section.
Amritpal Singh
		Amritpal Singh a young Kirtaniya and excellent Tabla player is one of the Granthis at the Milford Gurdwara. He has contributed to many of the recordings on this website by providing Tabla accompaniment. Amritpal Singh has also accompanied the Kids Jatha during many Interfaith programs. Amritpal is often found hard at work mastering new Ragas and compositions.
Devinder Singh Rekhi
		Devinder Singh Rekhi is a volunteer teacher at the Boston Chapter of the Gurmat Sangeet project. He performs the difficult Seva of introducing children who are starting out to the concepts of notes and Ragas. He has succesfully got several new students up to speed very quickly.
Ritu Singh
		Ritu Singh is a volunteer teacher at the Boston Chapter of the Gurmat Sangeet project. She is responsible for introducing the youngest children in the program to the concepts of notes and Raga.
Sarbpreet Singh
		Sarbpreet Singh is the co-ordinator of the Gurmat Sangeet Project and the author of the content on this website. He has a deep interest in Gurmat Sangeet, which he attributes to the Sangat of several gursikhs such as Bhai Nazar Singh (Milwaukee), S. Ravinderjit Singh (Rochester, MN) and S. Baldev Singh (Chicago). He has also drawn great inspiration from Gyani Dyal Singh Ji, Principal of the Kirtan Vidyalay at Rakab Ganj Delhi , as well as learned Ragis such as Bhai Sahib Avtar Singh Ji, Bhai Chhatar Singh Ji, Bhai Gurmej Singh Ji, Bhai Surjit Singh Ji (Long Island). Before moving to the Boston area in 1999, Sarbpreet Singh was associated with the Garden State Sikh Association, Bridgewater, NJ, where several of the recordings hosted on this website were made.
Gurmat Sangeet Project at the Interfaith Vigil Against Hate at the Unitarian Church in Boston; l to r Avneet Kaur, Amrit Kaur, Mehr Kaur, Baljot Kaur, Gurleen Kaur, Simranjit Singh, Amritpal Singh Baljot, Avneet and Mehr at the Vigil Milford Sangat at the Vigil