Surinder Singh Matharu
Professor Surinder Singh Matharu (Punjabi: ਸੁਰਿੰਦਰ ਸਿੰਘ ਮਠਾਰੂ) was born in 1969 in Kapurthala, India. He is a British scholar of Indian music, philosophy and Naad Yoga. In 1994, he founded the Raj Academy of Asian Music in London, which later became the Raj Academy Conservatoire, a non-profit school for Sikh music and Gurmat Sangeet (music of Guru’s wisdom). The academy teaches traditional Indian instruments such as the rabab, taus, saranghi, dilruba, saranda and jori. He helped start the Naad Yoga Council in 2008 and has taught Sikh music and Naad Yoga around the world, reaching more than 3,000 students.
In 2006, he was named Professor of Musicology at Thames Valley University (now the University of West London) and taught there until 2012. In 2017, he released a multi-award-winning documentary, Sikh Musical Heritage: The Untold Story.
Early life and training: Surinder Singh grew up in a military family in India and was exposed to Yogis, Sadhus and Indian classical music from a young age. His early teachers included Mahant Ajit Singh (musicology) and Gyani Najar Singh (rhythm). As a teenager, he studied singing, composition and musicology under Pandit Kharayti Lal Tahim of the Delhi Gharana, in the Guru-Shishya Parampara. He later trained in England with Surjit Singh Aulakh, a student of Pandit Ram Narayan.
Education: He earned a BA in Economics from NJSA College, Kapurthala (1988), an MA in Classical Indian Music from APJ College of Fine Arts, Jalandhar (1989), and an MPhil in Classical Indian Music from Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar. He earned the title of professor while working at Thames Valley University, where he helped develop the first globally recognised degree in Sikh Music.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 11:09 (CET).