Rezwana Choudhury Bannya (born 13 January 1957) is a singer from Bangladesh. She is an exponent of

Rabindra Sangeet ''Rabindra Sangeet'' (; ), also known as Tagore Songs, are songs from the Indian subcontinent written and composed by the Bengalis, Bengali polymath Rabindranath Tagore, winner of the 1913 Nobel Prize in Literature, the first Indian and also the ...

, the songs written and composed by

Rabindranath Tagore Rabindranath Thakur (; anglicised as Rabindranath Tagore ; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengalis, Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer, and painter of the Bengal Renai ...

. She has won many awards including Bangladesh's highest civilian award, the

Independence Day Award The Independence Award (), formally known as the Independence Day Award or Swadhinata Padak (), is the highest state award given by the government of Bangladesh. Introduced in 1977 by President Ziaur Rahman, this award is bestowed upon Banglade ...

(2016) and

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

's fourth highest civilian award,

Padma Shri The Padma Shri (IAST: ''padma śrī'', lit. 'Lotus Honour'), also spelled Padma Shree, is the fourth-highest Indian honours system, civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. In ...

(2024).

Early life

Rezwana was born in

Rangpur, Bangladesh Rangpur (; ; ), is a Metropolis, metropolitan city and a major city in northern Bangladesh. This city serves as the administrative center of the Rangpur Division. It is strategically located on the banks of the Ghaghot River and near the Teesta ...

to her parents Mazharuddin Khan and Ismat Ara Khan. Her early singing lessons began with her uncle Abdul Ali and continued later under the tutelage of Sanjida Khatun and Atiqul Islam at Chhayanaut and Bulbul Academy of Fine Arts (BAFA) in

Dhaka Dhaka ( or ; , ), List of renamed places in Bangladesh, formerly known as Dacca, is the capital city, capital and list of cities and towns in Bangladesh, largest city of Bangladesh. It is one of the list of largest cities, largest and list o ...

. As she continued taking lessons in music and singing, she also joined the Economics Program at the university of Dhaka after completion of her schooling. However, soon her inner self came to the realization that music was her destiny. She received a scholarship from the

Indian Council for Cultural Relations The Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) is an autonomous organisation of the Government of India, involved in India's global cultural relations, through cultural exchange with other countries and their people. It was founded on 9 April ...

(ICCR) to study in

Sangit Bhavana Sangit Bhavana (Institute of Dance, Drama and Music), of Visva-Bharati University, Santiniketan, started functioning as a part of Kala Bhavana in 1919 and as a separate institution in 1933. It was established by the Nobel laureate Rabindranath ...

Santiniketan Shantiniketan (IPA: Help:IPA/Bengali, �antiniketɔn is a neighbourhood of Bolpur town in the Bolpur subdivision of Birbhum district in West Bengal, India, approximately 152 km north of Kolkata. It was established by Maharshi Devendra ...

, the university that was founded by Tagore himself. She took lessons from artistes including Kanika Bandyopadhyay, Nilima Sen, Sailajaranjan Majumdar, Santidev Ghosh, Gora Sarbadhikary, Manju Bandyopadhyay and Asesh Bandyopadhyay. Years after receiving her master's degree from Visva-Bharati, she trained under Kanika Banerjee (Mohor Di) in private sessions for an extended period of time, as she recalled in the Musiana episode, "Meeting Mohar Di", hosted by Srikanto Acharya. In 2021 she completed her research on Rabindra Sangeet at the University of Dhaka, for which she received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

Career

Bannya is currently Professor and founding chair of the Department of Dance at the University of Dhaka; previously, she had been a professor in the Department of Music at the same university.The University of Dhaka, Department of Music
Inspired by Kanika Bandyopadhyay, she founded in 1992 ''Shurer Dhara'', a prestigious music school in Dhaka. with a focus on Ranbindra Sangeet. Bannya is currently Honorary Dean, Faculty of Performing Arts & Chairperson of Music Department of Tagore University of Creative Arts. In 2010, in order to commemorate the 150th birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore, she brought out a complete audio version of 2,233 songs in Tagore's ''Gitobitan'', which was titled ''Sruti Gitobitan.

Awards

* ''Ananda Sangeet Puroshkar'' for being the best female Rabindra Sangeet artist (2002) * ''Gaane Gaane Gunijon Shongbardhona'' (2011) * ''Sangeet Samman Puroshkar'' from the Ministry of Culture, India in 2013 *

(2016) * Banga Bhushan (2017) by the Government of West Bengal * Firoza Begum Memorial Gold Medal (2017) *Sangeet Maha Samman (2017) by the Government of West Bengal *Doctorate of Arts ''honoris causa'' from

Asian University for Women Asian University for Women (AUW) is an independent, international university in Chittagong, Bangladesh. AUW admits students solely on the basis of merit, regardless of their family's income level. Currently, 85% of AUW students are on scholarsh ...

(2019) *Lifetime Achievement Award conferred by Oikko.com.bd Channel I (2022) *

by the Government of India (2024)

Albums

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Choudhury Bannya, Rezwana 1957 births Living people People from Rangpur District Rabindra Sangeet exponents Visva-Bharati University alumni Academic staff of the University of Dhaka 20th-century Bangladeshi women singers 20th-century women composers 21st-century Bangladeshi women singers Recipients of the Independence Award Recipients of the Padma Shri in arts