A Letter From Gurmit

We don't teach music.
We pass down a tradition.

Twenty-five years ago, I started teaching Gurmat Sangeet in the basement of a gurdwara in Surrey. Three students, one borrowed harmonium, and the conviction that the raags the Gurus composed deserve a school.

— Gurmit Kor, Founder

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Featured

This term, these threads.

Program

Gurmat Sangeet Core

The foundation curriculum. Vocal kirtan in the Guru Granth Sahib tradition, taught in the order the scripture places the raags.

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Faculty

Gurmit Kor — Founder

Twenty-five years of teaching the raags the Gurus composed. Trained under Bhai Avtar Singh and Ustad Salamat Ali Khan.

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Enrol

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Fifty minutes. One raag. No obligation — just a taste of the tradition, in person or over a single call.

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Numbers that matter

A school that has been at this
for a quarter century.

Years teaching

Students taught

Raags in curriculum

Weekly practice hours

Faculty and students during a Saturday morning kirtan session

Begin

Your first raag starts here.

Book a trial lesson at our Surrey studio. No commitment — just an hour, one raag, and a teacher who has spent twenty-five years learning how to teach this tradition.

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The Letter

Surrey, BC · 2026

Dear friend,

If you're reading this, you are probably looking for a music school in Surrey for your child, or for yourself, or for a parent who has always wanted to learn kirtan properly. I want to tell you, honestly, what we do here and why it has lasted twenty-five years.

We don't teach music the way a modern music school teaches music. We don't run students through a curriculum of songs. We don't put on recitals of pop music in the gym. What we do is simpler, and harder: we teach the raags the Gurus composed, in the order the Guru Granth Sahib places them, with the discipline of the original tradition. One raag, one teacher, one student at a time. Sometimes a student stays with us for a decade before they are ready to perform. That's the work.

The music doesn't belong to me.
It belongs to the Guru,
and I am only its keeper
for the length of my teaching life.

I was trained by Bhai Avtar Singh of the Guru Nanak Sangeet Sangat, and by Ustad Salamat Ali Khan. They taught me that a raag is not a scale — it is a living thing with a particular time of day, a particular mood, a particular way of breathing. I try to teach that. Some weeks I succeed. Some weeks I am still learning it myself.

What I can promise you is this: if you bring your child to us, or come yourself, you will learn from a teacher who has sung the Guru's shabads under another teacher for years. Not from a curriculum designer. From a singer. That, I believe, is the difference.

Gurmit Kor

Founder & Principal

"The school exists because the music deserves to be taught properly. That's the whole reason."

Trained in Patiala & Rampur traditions · Teaching since 1998

Years teaching

600+

Students taught

120

Active now

What students say

Three voices.

Gurmit-ji taught me the raag my grandfather used to sing at the gurdwara. He didn't just teach me the notes — he taught me why those notes mattered to my grandfather.

Harleen B. · Student since 2019

I came to KOR at 52, having never sung a note in my life. Five years later, I lead kirtan at our gurdwara in Vancouver. I am still learning. That is the point.

Joginder S. · Student since 2021

My daughter started at age 7. She is now 15 and has performed at four community events. The teachers here treat her as a serious musician, not as a child.

Manjit K. · Parent

Programs

Three paths into the tradition.

Gurmat Sangeet

The music of the Guru Granth Sahib. The signature program. Sixty raags, taught in the order the scripture places them, with attention to the Guru's original compositions.

60-minute weekly private lesson · Group kirtan Saturdays

ii.

Hindustani Foundations

Hindustani vocal and instrumental foundations — raga architecture, tala, aaroha-avroha to advanced bandish — taught as discipline in service of Gurmat Sangeet. The raags the Gurus composed sit inside this wider Hindustani tradition, so we teach the foundations our kirtan students need to carry a shabad with authority.

60-minute weekly private lesson · Term recital

iii.

Instrument Studies

Tabla, harmonium, dilruba, taus, sitar. One-on-one weekly instruction with lineage-aware pedagogy. Instruments available to rent or purchase through the school.

45 or 60-minute weekly private lesson · Ensemble practice

Visit the studio

Come sit in on a class.

If you want to know what KOR is really like, the best thing is to come on a Saturday morning and hear the kirtan group. No appointment needed.

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We don't teach music.We pass down a tradition.