Subhra Guha (born 1956) is a vocalist in the

Hindustani classical music Hindustani classical music is the classical music of northern regions of the Indian subcontinent. It may also be called North Indian classical music or, in Hindustani, ''shastriya sangeet'' (). It is played in instruments like the violin, sit ...

tradition from the

Agra gharana The Agra gharana is a tradition of Hindustani classical vocal music descended from the Nauhar Bani. So far, Nauhar Bani has been traced back to around 1300 AD, during the reign of Emperor Allauddin Khilji of Delhi. The first known musician of ...

style of singing. Her repertoire covers

khyal Khyal or Khayal (ख़याल / خیال) is a major form of Hindustani classical music in the Indian subcontinent. Its name comes from a Persian/Arabic word meaning "imagination". Khyal is associated with romantic poetry, and allows the perfo ...

thumri Thumri () is a vocal genre or style of Indian music. The term "thumri" is derived from the Hindi verb ''thumuknaa'', which means "to walk with a dancing gait in such a way that the ankle-bells tinkle." The form is, thus, connected with dance, dr ...

and dadra.

Biography

Subhra Guha was born in

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comm ...

in 1956. Her family encouraged her to pursue Hindustani classical music, as she showed talent in music from a young age. Initially, she learnt music under Satish Bhowmick. From 1970, she trained in singing in Agra gharana style under Sunil Bose. From 1982, for ten years, she was a student at the ITC Sangeet Research Academy in Kolkata where she was taught by K. G. Ginde and Bhowmick. She learned thumri rendition from D. T. Joshi. In spite of the macho nature of the Agra gharana style of music, with her own sense of ''layakari'' (rhythmic play) and strong tone, she became proficient by creating her own style of gayaki under the guidance of

Vijay Kichlu Vijay Kichlu (16 September 1930 – 17 February 2023) was an Indian classical singer. He studied Dhrupad with the Dagar Brothers and Khayal Khyal or Khayal (ख़याल / خیال) is a major form of Hindustani classical music in the Indian ...

, director of the academy. She joined the academy as guru and taught between 1992 and 2003 and again in recent years. She is the only woman student of the Academy to be appointed as a guru in the same institution. Guha has performed in many concerts nationally and also in the US, Europe, and Asia. She has recorded albums for HMV and many other recording companies. She recorded playback music for

Goutam Ghose Goutam Ghose (also spelled Gautam Ghosh born 24 July 1950) is an Indian film director, Actor, music director and cinematographer, who works primarily in Bengali cinema. He is the only Indian to have received the "Vittorio Di Sica" Award, Italy ...

s film, ''

Yatra ( sa, यात्रा, 'journey', 'procession'), in Indian-origin religions, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism, generally means a pilgrimage to holy places such as Triveni Sangam, confluences of River#Sacred rivers, sacred rivers, S ...

''. She performs regularly on

All India Radio All or ALL may refer to: Language * All, an indefinite pronoun in English * All, one of the English determiners * Allar language (ISO 639-3 code) * Allative case (abbreviated ALL) Music * All (band), an American punk rock band * ''All'' (All ...

and

Doordarshan Doordarshan (abbreviated as DD; Hindi: , ) is an Indian public service broadcaster founded by the Government of India, owned by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and one of Prasar Bharati's two divisions. One of India's largest b ...

. She is also known for her Poorab Ang renditions of thumri.

Awards

In 2015, Guha received the Girija Shankar Smriti Puruskar award from the

Government of West Bengal The Government of West Bengal also known as the West Bengal Government, is the subnational government of the Indian state of West Bengal , created by the National Constitution as the state's legislative, executive and judicial authority. The ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Guha, Subhra 1956 births Hindustani singers Indian women classical singers Singers from Kolkata Living people Women Hindustani musicians 20th-century Indian singers 20th-century Indian women singers 21st-century Indian singers 21st-century Indian women singers 20th-century Khyal singers Recipients of the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award