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The unconventional Australian concert pianist Zubin Kanga, who elicits sounds from the instrument not just by playing the keys with his fingers, elbows, toes but by sometimes clambering over the piano and at other times sliding underneath it, was conferred the prestigious Michael Kieran Harvey Scholarship in Melbourne in July 2010. As lauded Harvey, "Kanga is quite simply an amazing, hugely gifted musician. His destiny as a major contributor to the wonderful universe of 21st century art and music seems assured.”

Presented biennially to a pianist with an innovative plan involving the piano and its repertoire, this award carries a gift of $ 40,000. With the support of this scholarship Kanga intends to arrange a recital of newly commissioned solo piano music, undertake an Australian tour of the program and collate two commercially available recordings. The concert series of new works will also be performed internationally in other countries where several corporate sponsors have invited him to perform, noted a write-up by Farhad Khurshed. 

An exponent of contemporary classical music, Kanga performs the works of composers of the 20th and 21st century, often as world premieres, giving his audiences a unique opportunity to hear some compositions in their maiden performance. One of his remarkable renderings was the Australian premiere of Towers of Silence composed by his piano teacher, the renowned new music pianist Rolf Hind. As explains Kanga in an e-mail message to Parsiana, "Rolf is interested in many of the religions and cultures of India and has traveled there many times over the past three decades. Many of his other works reference rituals and symbols of Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism but Towers of Silence is his first work to reference Zoroastrianism. Rather than literally describing the Towers or the funeral ceremonies, Hind’s work explores the cycle of life from birth to the tumultousness of youth, to the slowing down and gaining wisdom with age, and finally facing death where the body is returned to nature. It thus uses a symbol from Zoroastrianism to express universal ideas about life and death. The work is both incredibly innovative in its use of piano technique (with a range of unusual sounds produced by playing inside the piano) as well as being very expressive. The innovative nature as well as the link to my own heritage inspired me to learn and program this piece in my concerts.”

"His performance expanded the mind and altered established ideas about the way the piano can be played,” commended Khurshed remarking on how the artiste percussively plays various surfaces under the piano using articles like pencils, gongs and ping pong balls to create "an other-worldly counterpoint, reflecting the theme of the piece. There are complex passages of harmonics that use devices such as the e-bow, an oscillating electromagnet that produces a unique eerie sound. Zubin performed this piece with sensitivity and skill.”

Refusing to comment on the debate surrounding the efficacy of the Towers of Silence, Kanga maintains it "draws upon many complex questions of theology, ecology, biology, history and cultural identity. I don’t feel sufficiently informed on all these issues…”

Performing regularly with some of Australia’s and Britain’s leading new music outfits like AARK, Halcyon, Sonic Art Ensemble, Azalea Ensemble and Ensemble Offspring, Kanga has worked closely with eminent composers like George Benjamin, Michael Finnissy, Judith Weir, Howard Skempton, Paul Steenhuisen, Damien Ricketson and Michael Smetanin as also upcoming names like Daniel Rojas, Paul Evernden, Cyrus Meurant and Alexander Pozniak. 

During his studies at the University of Sydney Kanga received many awards from the Music Department, ultimately graduating in 2006 with first class honors and the University Medal in music. After listening to his rendering of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, composer and chair of music at the University of Sydney Prof Anne Boyd had commented in 2003, " I found this experience so profoundly moving that I left the concert in tears. For a crusty old professor, veteran of so many student recitals, this experience was completely unprecedented and a testimony not only to Zubin’s extraordinary technique but to his powers of musical communication.”

  In 2007 Kanga pursued postgraduate studies with a full scholarship (Tobias Matthay Fellowship and Winifred Christie Award) at the Royal Academy of Music, London, notes his bio data. Currently he is working on his PhD at the Royal Academy with a scholarship from the Menzies Institute whilst continuing his performance schedule. The highlight of the next quarter will be the program on January 18, 2011 when he will perform a double concerto along with Hind at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London with the London Symfonietta Orchestra, mentions his father Rustom. "My wife Marlene and I (who both grew up in Bombay) and his younger brother Jehan (who is also a musician — violinist and conductor) are very proud of Zubin’s achievements in the musical world,” adds Rustom, reporting that Sydney born Zubin "always loves to meet his old friends here whenever he returns from London.”

Referring to Kanga’s popularity with audiences in Australia and overseas, Kersi Meher-Homji gives him credit for being "an innovator with a brilliant technique. He has popularized modern classical music, especially with the younger generation.”

One of his concerts last year when he performed the works of seven composers had earned a review by Phil Vendy in Resonate magazine, August 7, 2009 wherein he wrote: "In this performance Kanga dissected his representative Steinway with a ruthless clinicism that left the near capacity audience with little to do at the end save shake their heads and applaud…” There were times when the Steinway "became an item of gymnasium equipment, sometimes even a yoga mat as much as a musical instrument… They were funny things to do but not played for the laughs… The Steinway remained at the end looking unruffled apart from the blemishes that Kanga’s attentions had left on its pristine ebony lacquer…”