ILYAS RAPHAËL KHAN is an Indo-French musician with a long musical lineage
spanning several generations. The son of the famous artistic director Hameed Khan
Kawa (Musafir, Jaipur Kawa Brass Band, Kawa Circus), he grew up near the Amber
Fort in Jaipur. From an early age his father and grandfather taught him Hindustani
classical Indian music through oral transmission: the taleem.

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Today, Ilyas is not only a master of the tabla (Indian percussion) but is also a talented
beatboxer. He took up beatboxing at the age of 14 becoming one of India’s first
beatboxers. He was soon nominated for the French Beatboxing Championships
and had the honour of working with Alem, the 2015 World Beatboxing Champion.

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More recently Ilyas’s Kit Kat commercial propelled him into the world of
international beatboxers with a record 27 million views in 24 hours.

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Ilyas successfully blends these two practices. His musical talent is to develop
contemporary sounds while keeping the Indian tabla tradition alive. He calls his
musical art ‘TABLABOXING’.

”The stage name Tablaboxing,” said the Hindustan Times.

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Using the acoustic sounds of tablas and beatboxing, Ilyas creates loops of
repetitive sounds, recorded live on stage and combines them with visual images
with sound support.

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Ilyas has performed across the world :

South bank centre London, Institut du Monde Arabe Paris, Opéra de Lille,

Guimet Museum Paris, Festival Solidays, NCPA theatre Mumbai India, Commonwealth games Glasgow, Château Nantes, Camp Bestival UK, Festival du Bout du Monde et des pays comme Mexico, Italie, Danemark, Liban, Tunisia, Morocco, United kingdom, Kazakhstan.

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At the same time ilyas had been on a Musical theatre collage in Londres, and colaborated with hip hop et Bharat Natyam dancers in UK, Florent Melac dancer at the l'Opéra of Paris and musicians like the rapper Népal, Denez Prigent, Krismen/Alem, Mame Khan India, the brothers Gharbi (Bechir et Mohamed) Tunisie, Baluji Shrivastav, Harsh wardhan.

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