Pankti Shukla

Hi, my name is Pankti Shukla, I developed an interest in music when I was 10 years old, but I decided to pursue the field of music while I was completing my degree in Master of Business Marketing. I was constantly trying to improve and enhance my knowledge in music, which led me to explore more in the field. When I finally decided to pursue music as a profession, I wanted to learn new things for which, I took professional music lessons to train in Indian Classical and Sugam music. Gradually, I began performing at small events to improve myself in that genre of music. Apart from performing in front of a live audience, I also developed an interest in making YouTube covers on popular songs because I love to add my own flavor and variation to the songs. Although my goal is to make singing my profession, currently I am only able to do shows approximately once or twice per month due to my full-time job as a Recruiting Officer at an IT firm. However, my dedication and passion towards singing encourages me to practice daily for roughly 1-2 hours, regardless if there is a show or not. While training in Indian Classical music from Shri. Aniket Khandekar and learning Sugam music from Shri. Nayan Pancholi, I learned the importance of Riaaz (practice). Riaaz to me is crucial because it helps me expand my knowledge on different aspects of music. I consider them my role models as they saw a singer in me and taught me the importance of the knowledge I have acquired in music. They also encouraged me to learn more, which is the reason that I can sing more than one genre of music. Apart from Classical and Sugam, I sing Garba songs, Lagna Geet (Gujarati wedding songs), and Bollywood songs. Performing various forms of singing will enable me to create my own band soon and help me overcome the challenges I face to become a full-time artist. Demographics significantly decreased the number of shows I was doing after coming to Canada. However, during this time period I continued my Riaaz and making more YouTube covers through which, I was able to connect with my audience reach their hearts. In my opinion, keeping the audience happy and satisfied with my singing is what makes any show successful. Along with that, I always try to prepare for the worst because sometimes problems may arise at the last moment. Regardless of any situation, the show must go on.