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Classical Singers

Classical Singers

1. SHANKAR

Ravi Shankar (7 April 1920 – 11 December 2012), often referred to by the title , was an Indian musician and composer who played thesitar, a plucked string instrument. He has been described as the best-known contemporary Indian musician.

He spent his youth touring Europe and with the dance group of his brother . He gave up dancing in 1938 to study playing under court musician . After finishing his studies in 1944, Shankar worked as a composer, creating the for the Apu Trilogy by , and was music director of All India Radio, New , from 1949 to 1956.

In 1956, he began to tour Europe and the Americas playing and increased its popularity there in the 1960s through teaching, performance, and his association with violinist and rock artist of the Beatles. Shankar engaged Western music by writing concerti for sitar and orchestra and toured the world in the 1970s and 1980s. From 1986 to 1992 he served as a nominated member of , the upper chamber of the Parliament of India. Shankar was awarded India's highest civilian honour, the , in 1999, and received three Grammy Awards. He continued to perform in the 2000s, sometimes with his younger daughter, Anoushka. Career

Shankar developed a style distinct from that of his contemporaries and incorporated influences from rhythm practices of Carnatic music. His performances begin with solo alap, jor, and jhala (introduction and performances with pulse and rapid pulse) influenced by the slow and serious dhrupad genre, followed by a section with tabla accompaniment featuring compositions associated with the prevalent khyal style.

Shankar's parents had died by the time he returned from the European tour, and touring the West had become difficult due to political conflicts that would lead to World War II. Shankar gave up his dancing career in 1938 to go to Maihar and study Indian classical music as Khan's pupil, living with his family in the traditional gurukul system. Khan was a rigorous teacher and Shankar had training on sitar and , learned and the musical stylesdhrupad, dhamar, and khyal, and was taught the techniques of the instruments rudra veena, rubab, and sursingar.

2. Bhimsen Gururaj Joshi

Bhimsen Gururaj Joshi February 4, 1922 – January 24, 2011) was an Indian vocalist in the Hindustani classical tradition. A member of the Kirana (school), he is renowned for the khayal form of singing, as well as for his popular renditions of devotional music ( and ). He was the most recent recipient of the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour, awarded in 2008.

Joshi was born into a Marathi Brahmin family in the town of Ron (now in Gadag district), which was then in Dharwar District in the , now the northern part of Karnataka state in India His father, Gururaj Joshi, was a school teacher. Bhimsen was the eldest in a family of 16 siblings. Some of the siblings still live in their ancestral home in Gadag. Bhimsen lost his mother when he was young, and his step mother then raised him. Joshi got his first basic foundation in music from Chinnappa, a local musician who was a family washerman in profession. Bhimsen's guru Sawai Gandharva was the chief disciple of Abdul Karim Khan, who along with his cousin Abdul Wahid Khan was the founder of the Kirana Gharana school of Hindustani music.Joshi heard a recording of Abdul Karim Khan's Thumri "Piya Bin Nahi Aavat Chain" in Jhinjhoti when he was a child, which inspired him to become a musician. Career

Joshi first performed live in 1941 at the age 19. His debut album containing a few devotional songs in Marathi, and . Later Joshi moved to in 1943 and worked as a radio artist. His performance at a concert in 1946 to celebrate his guru Sawai Gandharva's 60th birthday won him accolades both from the audience and his guru. Hindustani classical music 's music was hailed by both the critics and the masses. His music often injected surprising and sudden turns of phrase, for example through the unexpected use of boltaans.

Playback singing Joshi sang for several films, including Basant Bahar (1956) with , Birbal My Brother (1973) with Pandit , and Kannada films like Sandhya Raaga and Nodi Swami Naavu Irodhu Heege.

3. Pandit Devabra Chaudhuri

Pandit Devabrata Chaudhuri is a Sitarist and a teacher. He is the winner of the Padmabhushan and Padmashree awards. He is the writer of three books, composer of eight newraga‟s and numerous musical compositions. From 1963 he has appeared in numerous radio broadcasts, and he is a disciple of Mushtaq Ali Khan. He is considered a leading Sitarist of Post War era. He is regarded as one of the leading proponents of Senia Style.He is the former Dean and Head, Faculty of Music, University of Delhi. His music is noted for its sweet sinking ringing tone. He currently stays with his son, daughter-in law and niece at Chittaranjan Park,

Pt. Chaudhuri was born in 1935 in Mymensing (now in ).He started playing the Sitar from four years of age. His first broadcast was at the age of twelve at the All India Radio in 1953.

He received his education in the . He joined Delhi University as a reader from 1971 to 1982 and was the Dean and Head of Music Department from 1985 to 1988. He has served as a visiting professor at the MIU, Iowa from 1991 to 1994. He received his training in Sitar under late Panchu Gopal Ratna and Ushtad Mustaq Ali Khan Music

He started paying the Sitar from four years of age. His first broadcast was at the age of twelve at the All India Radio in 1953.He created 8 new Ragas viz. Bisweswari, Palas-Sarang, Anuranjani, Ashiqui , Swanandeswari, Bilawal, Shivamanjari and Prabhati Manjari. He has authored three books on Indian Music namely „Sitar and its Techniques‟, „‟ and „On Indian Music‟. He has recorded 24 CD‟s for 24 hours of the day in USA. Style

He is considered a leading proponent of playing the repeated articulation of the pedal tone with the tonic pitch of the second string, by pulling the string across the fret that is allowed to die out before the basic alternation stroking is continued. He is also unique in using the 17 fret sitar while most musicians use the 19 fret sitar. Contributions

In April 2010 he started the UMAK (Ustad Mushtaq Ali Khan) Center for culture in memory of his „‟guru‟‟ Ustad Mushtaq Ali Khan.

4.

Ali Akbar Khan(14 April 1922 – 18 June 2009), often referred to as Khansahib or by the title Ustad (master), was a Hindustani classical musician of the Maihar gharana, known for his virtuosity in playing the . Khan was instrumental in popularizing Indian classical music in the West, both as a performer (often in conjunction with Sitarmaestro ), and as a teacher. He established a music school in Calcutta in 1956, and the Ali Akbar College of Music in 1967.Khan also composed several classical ragas and film scores.

Trained as a musician and instrumentalist by his father, Allauddin Khan, Khan first came to America in 1955 on the invitation of violinist Yehudi Menuhin and later settled in California.Khan was nominated for five Grammy Awards and was accorded India's second highest civilian honor, the , in 1989.He has also won a MacArthur Fellowship and the National Endowment for the Arts's National Heritage Fellowship. Career

Ali Akbar Khan, after years of rigorous training gave his debut performance at a music conference in in 1936, at the age of 13. Three years later, in December 1939, he accompanied Ravi Shankar on the sarod during the latter's debut performance at the same conference; this was the first of many jugalbandis (duets) between the two musicians. In 1938 Khan gave his first recital on All India Radio (AIR), Bombay (accompanied on the tabla by ), and starting in January 1940, he gave monthly performances on AIR, Lucknow. Finally in 1944, both Shankar and Khan left Maihar to start their professional careers as musicians; Shankar went to Bombay, while Khan became the youngest Music Director for AIR, Lucknow and was responsible for solo performances and composing for the radio orchestra.

Khan has participated in a number of classic jugalbandi pairings, most notably with Ravi Shankar, and violinist L. Subramaniam. A few recordings of duets with also exist. He also collaborated with Western musicians. In August 1971, Khan performed at Madison Square Garden for the Concert for Bangladesh, along with Ravi Shankar, Alla Rakha and Kamala Chakravarty; other musicians at the concert included George Harrison, Bob Dylan,Eric Clapton and Ringo Starr. A live album and a movie of the event were later released.

5.L Subramaniam

Dr. Lakshminarayana Subramaniam (born on 23 July 1947) is an acclaimed Indian violinist,composer and conductor, trained in the classical Carnatic music tradition and Western classical music, and renowned for his virtuoso playing techniques and compositions in orchestral fusion.Subramaniam was born to Hindu Brahmin V Lakshminarayana, and Seethalakshmi, both accomplished musicians of Tamil descent.

He lived in Jaffna during his younger years, taking up music studies before the age of five.[1] He began training in violin under the tutelage of his father, Professor V. Lakshminarayana. “Mani”, as he is fondly known by fellow musicians and his family, gave his first public performance at the age of six.

His brothers are also acclaimed musicians, and include the well-known violinist-composers L. Shankar (alias. Shenkar), and the late L. Vaidyanathan. He has released recordings with both. Career

Since 1973, Subramaniam has amassed over 200 recordings to his credit, releasing several historic solo albums, recording collaborations with musicians Yehudi Menuhin, Stéphane Grappelli,Ruggiero Ricci and Jean-Pierre Rampal, further to making albums and performing with Ruggiero Ricci, Herbie Hancock, Joe Sample, Jean-Luc Ponty, Stanley Clarke John Handy, George Harrison and several others.

In 1983, he composed a Double Concerto for violin and flute which combined western scales with micro intervals. Another release, “Spring – Rhapsody” was a homage to Bach and Baroque music. Creations with orchestras that have followed include Fantasy on Vedic Chants with the , conducted by Zubin , Turbulence with The Swiss Romande Orchestra, “The Concert of Two Violins” with theOslo Philharmonic, and Global Symphony with the Berlin State Opera among others.

The release of his albums, including Global Fusion in 1999 have brought Subramaniam widespread critical acclaim, and popularity for his advanced playing. He founded and directs the Lakshminarayana Global Music Festival, a festival based in India.He composed the film scores for the films Salaam Bombay (1988) and Mississippi Masala (1991) directed by Mira Nair, in addition to being the featured violin soloist in Bernardo Bertolucci's Little Buddha (1993) and Cotton Mary (1999) of Merchant-Ivory productions.

"Music is a vast ocean and no one can claim to know it all. The more you know, the more you realize how little you know. It is an eternal quest" - Dr L Subramaniam

6.

Bismillah Khan(March 21, 1916 – August 21, 2006), often referred to by the honorific title Ustad, was an Indian musician credited with popularising theshehnai, a subcontinental wind instrument of the oboe class. While the shehnai had long held importance as a folk instrument played primarily during traditional ceremonies, Khan is credited with elevating its status and bringing it to the concert stage.

He was awarded India‟s highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna, in 2001, becoming the third classical musician after M. S. Subbulakshmi and Ravi Shankar to be accorded this distinction.

Bismillah Khan was born in Dumraon, Bihar in northern India.His parents had initially named him Qamaruddin to rhyme with their first-born son Shamshuddin. However, his grandfather, Rasool Bux Khan, the shehnai master of the court of Bhojpur, exclaimed "Bismillah!" ("In the name of Allah!") at the sight of him and thereafter he came to be known by this name.

At the age of six, he moved to .He received his training under his uncle, the late Ali Baksh 'Vilayatu', a shehnai player attached to Varanasi's Vishwanath Temple. Career

Bismillah Khan was perhaps single-handedly responsible for making the shehnai a famous classical instrument. He brought the shehnai to the center stage of Indian music with his concert in the Calcutta All India Music Conference in 1937. He was credited with having almost monopoly over the instrument as he and the shehnai are almost synonyms.

Khan is one of the finest musicians in post-independent Indian classical music and one of the best examples of Hindu-Muslim unity in India. He played shehnai to audience across the world. He was known to be so devoted to his art form that he referred to shehnai.On his death, as an honour, his shehnai was buried with him. He was known for his vision of spreading peace and love through music. Popular culture

Khan had a brief association with movies. He played the shehnai for 's role of Appanna in the Kannada movie Sanaadi Appanna. He acted in Jalsaghar, a movie by Satyajit Ray and provided sound of shehnai in (1959). Noted director Goutam Ghose directed Sange Meel Se Mulaqat, a documentary about the life of Khan.

7.

Amjad Ali Khan (born 9 October 1945 is an Indian classical musician who plays the Sarod. Khan was born into a musical family and has performed internationally since the 1960s. He was awarded India's second highest civilian honor, the Padma Vibhushan, in 2001. Career

Khan was born in on 9 October 1945 as Masoom Ali Khan, the youngest of seven children, to Gwalior court musician and Rahat Jahan.His family is part of theBangash lineage and Khan is in the sixth generation of musicians; his family claims to have invented the sarod.[2][3][4] His personal name was changed by a sadhu to Amjad. Khan receivedhomeschooling and studied music under his father.

Khan first performed in the United States in 1963 and continued into the 2000s, with his sons. He has experimented with modifications to his instrument throughout his career.Khan played with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra and worked as a visiting professor at the University of New Mexico. In 2011, he performed on Carrie Newcomer's album Everything is Everywhere with his sons.

Khan received the Padma Shri in 1975, the in 1991, and the Padma Vibhushan in 2001, and was awarded the Akademi Award for 1989 and the Fellowship for 2011.He was awarded the Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize in 2004.Khan was made an honorary citizen of Houston, Texas, and Nashville, Tennessee, in 1997, and of Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 2007.He received the Banga-Vibhushan in 2011. Sarod maestro Amjad Ali Khan, who has shared his rich experience in Indian classical music in classes across the West, will now teach for a quarter at Stanford University, this course will have lessons on Sarod as well.

Khan cared for his diabetic father until he died in 1972. His family arranged a marriage, which failed, and Khan was married a second time, to dancer Subhalakshmi, on September 25, 1976. Subhalakshmi Barooah Khan is a native of Assam and has stopped performing. They have two sons, Amaan, the older one, and Ayaan, who were taught music by their father.Khan is a Muslim and his wife is a Hindu.Their family home in Gwalior was made into a musical center and they live in New Delhi.

8.

Lata Mangeshkar (born 28 September 1929) is an Indian singer, and occasional music-composer. Mangeshkar's career started in 1942 and has spanned over six and a half decades. She has recorded songs for over a thousand Hindi films and has sung songs in over thirty-six regional Indian languages and foreign languages, though primarily in Hindi. She is the elder sister of singer , Hridayanath Mangeshkar, and Meena Mangeshkar. She is the second vocalist to have ever been awarded the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour.

Mangeshkar was featured in the Guinness Book of World Records from 1974 to 1991 for having made the most recordings in the world. The claim was that she had recorded approximately 25,000 solo, duet, and chorus-backed songs in 20 Indian languages between 1948 to 1974.In 2011 Guinness officially acknowledged Bhosle as the most recorded artist in music history.

Lata Mangeshkar was born Gomantak Maratha family, in .Her father, Pandit who belonged to a family from , was a classical singer and theater actor. Her mother Shevanti (Shudhamati) who was from Thalner, , was Deenanath's second wife Career

Lata Mangeshkar was born Gomantak Maratha family, in the of Indore, part of the Central India Agency (now part of ). Her father, Pandit Deenanath Mangeshkar who belonged to a Gomantak Maratha Samaj family from Goa, was a classical singer and theater actor. Her mother Shevanti (Shudhamati) who was from Thalner, Maharashtra, was Deenanath's second wife. The family's last name used to be Hardikar; Deenanath changed it to Mangeshkar in order to identify his family with his native town, Mangeshi in Goa.

She started taking lessons in Hindustani classical music from UstadAmanat Ali Khan . She sang “Paa Lagoon Kar Jori” for Vasant Joglekar's Hindi-language movie Aap Ki Seva Mein (1946), which was composed by Datta Davjekar Mangeshkar and her sister Asha played minor roles in Vinayak's first Hindi- language movie, Badi Maa (1945). In that movie, Lata also sang a , “Maata Tere Charnon Mein.”

One of her first major hits was “Aayega Aanewaala,” a song in the movie Mahal (1949), which was composed by music director and lip-synced on screen by actress .

9. A.R.Rahman

Allahrakka Rahman (6 January 1966) is an Indian composer, singer-songwriter, music producer, musician, multi-instrumentalist and philanthropist. Described as the world's most prominent and prolific film composer by Time, his works are notable for integrating Eastern classical music with electronic music sounds, world music genres and traditional orchestral arrangements. He has won two Academy Awards, two Grammy Awards, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe, four , fifteen Awards and thirteen South in addition to numerous other awards and nominations.

Rahman is one of the world's all-time top selling recording artists.In a notable career spanning two decades, Rahman has garnered particular acclaim for redefining contemporary Indian film music and thus contributing to the success of several films. Rahman is currently one of the highest paid composers of the motion picture industry.

A. R. Rahman was born in , Tamil Nadu, India to a musically Mudaliar affluent Tamil family. His father R. K. Shekhar, was a film music composer and conductor for Tamil as well as films. Rahman used to assist his father during recordings and play keyboard for the songs. Career

When he was nine, Rahman accidentally played a tune on piano during his father's recording for a film, which R. K. Shekhar later developed into a complete song, "Vellithen Kinnam Pol", for the Malayalam film Penpada.In 1987 Rahman got his first opportunity to compose jingles for new range of watches being launched by Allwyn.In 1992, he was approached by film directorMani Ratnam to compose the score and soundtrack for Ratnam's Tamil film Roja.

2005, Rahman extended his Panchathan Record Inn studio by establishing AM Studios in Kodambakkam, Chennai.In 2006, Rahman launched his own music label, KM Music. Its first release was his score to the film Sillunu Oru Kaadhal. Rahman scored the Mandarin language picture Warriors of Heaven and Earth in 2003 and won the Just Plain Folks Music Award For Best Music Album for his score of the 2006 film Varalaru (God Father). He co-scored the Shekhar Kapur project and his first British film, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, in 2007.He garnered an Asian Film Award nomination for Best Composer at the Hong Kong International Film Festival for his Jodhaa Akbar score.

10. Asha Bhosle

Asha Bhosle (born September 8, 1933) is an Indian singer. She is best known as a in Hindi cinema.Bhosle's career started in 1943 and has spanned over six decades. She has recorded several private albums and participated in numerous solo concerts in India and abroad.

She was officially acknowledged by the Guinness Book of World Records as the most recorded artist in music history.The honoured her with the in 2000 and the Padma Vibhushan in 2008.

Asha Bhosle was born in the small hamlet of Goar in , Bombay Presidency (now in Maharashtra), into the musical family of Master Deenanath Mangeshkar, who belongs to Gomantak Maratha Samaj.. She and her elder sister Lata Mangeshkar began singing and acting in films to support their family. She sang her first film song '"Chala Chala Nav Bala" for the Marathi film Majha Bal (1943). Career

She first achieved success in B. R. Chopra's Naya Daur (1957), composed by him. Her duets with Rafi like "Maang Ke Saath Tumhara", " Haath Badhana" and "Uden Jab Jab Zulfein Teri", penned by , earned her recognition. It was the first time she sang all the songs for a film's leading actress. including Gumrah (1963), Waqt (1965), (1965), (1966) and Dhund (1973). Nayyar's future collaboration with Bhosle also resulted in success Bhosle and Nayyar had a professional and personal parting of ways in the 1970s.

In 1981 she attempted a different genre by singing several for the -starrer Umrao Jaan, including "Dil Cheez Kya Hai", "In Aankhon Ki Masti Ke", "Yeh Kya Jagah Hai Doston" and "Justaju Jiski Thi". Bhosle herself expressed surprise that she could sing so differently. The ghazals won her the first National Film Award of her career.She also won another National Award for the song "Mera Kuchh Saamaan" from (1987).

In 1995, 62-year-old Bhosle sang for actress in the movie Rangeela. The soundtrack featured songs like "Tanha Tanha" and "Rangeela Re" sung by her. During the 2000s, several of Bhosle's numbers became chartbusters, including " Kaise Na Jale" from (2001).

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