HOUSTON – A local ensemble making South Asian devotional music recently got the chance to collaborate on the soundtrack of a very special episode of Disney Junior’s ‘Mira, Royal Detective’
They’re called Riyaaz Qawwali, and Sonny, the group’s founder, and artistic director spoke about this significant opportunity for Asian representation.
“Amritha Vaz, composer at Disney reached out and we collaborated with her on a qawwali. This is special because I later found out it was the first time qawwali music was used ever in a Disney production,” said Sonny about the venerable musical tradition that celebrates love, devotion, and God.
The group’s work appeared earlier this month on an episode of ‘Mira, Royal Detective’ centered around Eid, the Muslim holiday marking the end of the month-long fast of Ramadan.
Riyaaz Qawwali has been professionally performing qawwali for 15 years and will take the stage at Jones Hall in November.
You can see Sonny’s complete interview in the video above.
To connect with the group, you can click here.