Parmela Attariwala has spent her life pursuing a fascination with sound; with its power to evoke
metaphor and captivate the imagination. As a child nurtured in the dual—and often dueling—spirits of Western individualism and South Asian social conservatism, the violin became her unfettered language. Eventually, music and sound became the modes by which she explored the commonalities of human experience and the circumscriptions of ethnocultural particularity.
Parmela holds degrees in violin performance and ethnomusicology (specializing in Sikh devotional music and Canadian cultural policy, respectively). In addition to performing traditional Western art music, she is dedicated to engaging in art that reflects the current era: contemporary and genre-bending musics, improvisation, and interdisciplinary creation. Parmela has released three critically acclaimed Attar Project albums that combine the virtuousity of Western strings with South Asian rhythm and form. She has also worked extensively—as composer, musician and movement artist—with choreographers across a range of disciplines, in particular bharata-natyam, butoh and contact.
In 2019, after twenty-five years in Toronto, Parmela moved to the west coast—to be near family, and to experience the place where her grandfather was brought as a child labourer over a century earlier. She continues to live an eclectic musical life, while also being deeply engaged in advocating for equity and ethics in Canadian musicking. In 2021, Parmela co-founded Understory, an interdisciplinary network and creation platform for Canadian improvising artists. https://understorysound.ca Her recent creative work includes collaborations with: Sujit Vaidya (Sacred Sacrilegious dance film); Peter Morin, Ayumi Goto and the Esker Foundation (sound installations); and Marion Newman/Calgary Opera (Namwayut opera).
