The Kalinga Avatar - the Indian Tribal Choir, is a modest beginning to promote tribal language, music and culture to its purest forms and integrate Indian tribal music into mainstream scenario at par with other Indian and international music.
It started as an initiative at KIIT Student Activity Centre and then the idea was groomed and executed at KISS to come up with a tribal choir, which was presented at the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.
The choir was launched by Director General, Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR), New Delhi, Akhilesh Mishra in the presence of Director, ICCR Bhubaneswar Regional Office Minakshi Mishra, founder, KIIT and KISS Dr Achyuta Samanta and Deputy Director, Student Services, KIIT at KIIT University Dr Shyam Sundar Behura.
21 vocalists and 16 musicians who are the indigenous (tribal) students studying in KISS consisted the tribal choir. The entire exercise starting from selection of language, writing down the lyrics, screening and deciding of group members, finalising of instruments, practice sessions to finally performing took a committed 12 weeks and involved dedication and hard work of 37 tribal students and their mentor, Aniruddha Roy, a KIIT alumni and executive at KIIT Student Activity Centre.
The song used in the choir is an original composition in Deshia language complimented by authentic tribal instruments such as Tamak, Dhapu, Gini, Mardal and Bainsi thus, making Kalinga Avatar unique and first of its kind in India.