Keith Whiting and Khadija Kausar combine their creativity to bring you unique works of Art, literature, music, poetry, video, dance, and spirit
Keith’ career has encompassed the roles of musician, recording engineer, record producer, playwright, author, songwriter, record company executive, magazine founder, photographer, sound designer and entrepreneur. As a mixer of musical hybrids, he created the Juno nominated group Kaleefah, which fused African, South American and western music, and backed Celine Dion on a Juno performance. He was also the co-founder of the Gospel Project an eighteen-voice choir and group that appeared on CBC radio and performed with Billy Preston.
Starting out as a drummer at the age of 7, he played his first paying gig at the age of 12. At 15 he joined the band Rare Amber with which he toured England and Germany before recording their critically acclaimed self-titled album.
Leaving the band he moved into engineering at Phillips Studio in London where He engineered albums for ELO, Dusty Springfield, Cleo Laine, The Move, Ben Webster, Scott Walker, Rod McKuen and many others.
After 2 years at Phillips he moved to Decca Records where he refined his production skills. He then spent 2 months in Nigeria teaching engineering, and producing the critically acclaimed album, “Blo Step 3”.
Moving to Canada, his productions include the album “Black Noise” by the band FM which was recognized by Rolling Stone Magazine as one of the top 50 progressive rock albums of all time. Other albums followed by: Marc Jordan, Ken Tobias, Aaron Davis, Doug Riley, Pat Labarbara, Dianne Heatherington, Danny Weis, Jackie Richardson, Professor Longhair, and many leading jazz Artists. He also produced albums of classical music with Andrew Davis, Julius Baker, Jeanne Baxtresser, The Canadian Brass, The Bowkun Trio, and Valerie Tryon.
As senior music producer for CBC radio he worked with many great international artists including: Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Oscar Peterson, Jaco Pastorius, Keith Jarrett, Mel Torme, Pat Metheny, John Scofield, Roberta Flack, The Temptations, Donovan, Robert Palmer, and many others.
He is the founder of imaJJine, a contemporary jazz collective, featuring many of Canada’s top musicians and singers. The album “Love Songs & Lullabies” for which Keith wrote or co-wrote all the songs, currently has over 2 million Spotify streams.
Along with Khadija, and Walter Borden he wrote and created the live theatrical spectacular “I Will Rise In Love”
When Keith is not creating he has spent his time running the Toronto Marathon, earning his second-degree black belt in Karate, crewing on a racing yacht, and playing tennis. He is currently learning to scuba dive and teaching himself to play the bagpipes.
Khadija is an amazing multi-talented actor, singer, dancer, writer and poet. Winning numerous awards for each of her talents including:
Winner Interschool Dance Competition (3 times) Winner Interschool Theatre Competition
Winner interschool singing competition (2 times) Winner intercollege drama competition
2005 – First place in the intercollege dance competition on a Bollywood fusion with variations of daf instrument and ribbons
2006 – Won the leaders award for representing a stall of my country
2008 – Won the first award in writing competition
2009 – Won the dance competition – with variations of diya and drapes
She has performed on Bollywood songs and in theatre productions in both Dubai and Canada
She is currently working on 5 books – In The Hoop, A Tribute to a Lover, A Journey to Nothing and Everything, Untethered and Unheard, Revival of Self.
Khadija is also a prolific poet, four of her poems will be included on the album, “Songs From An Eastern Western
Along with Keith, and Walter Borden she wrote and created the live theatrical spectacular “I Will Rise In Love”
In 2010 Khadija started practicing yoga and meditation and created small community groups which she continues to run
She is a physiotherapist by profession, and has practiced in Dubai, Qatar, Singapore, Malaysia, Pakistan and now in Canada. Currently working with seniors and running group exercise and falls prevention classes
Keith and Khadija are currently working on 3 books. They are co-writing, “A New Book”. Alongside that they are each writing a book of poetry.
Khadija’ “My Spiritual Diaries“ is a mystical collection of poetry that delves deep into the essence of spirituality.
Keith’ “I Feed The Cat“ Contemplative words of love and loss remind you of the bittersweet journey that is life.
