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Rezwana Choudhury Bannya রেজওয়ানা চৌধুরী বন্যা | |
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.jpg) Bannya in 2017 | |
| Background information | |
| Born | (1957-01-13)13 January 1957 (age 68)[1] |
| Genres | Rabindra Sangeet |
| Occupation(s) | Singer, professor |
| Instrument(s) | Vocal,harmonium,esraj |
Rezwana Choudhury Bannya (born 13 January 1957) is a singer from Bangladesh. She is an exponent ofRabindra Sangeet, the songs written and composed byRabindranath Tagore.[2] She has won many awards including Bangladesh's highest civilian award, theIndependence Day Award (2016)[3] andIndia's fourth highest civilian award,Padma Shri (2024).[4]
Rezwana was born inRangpur, Bangladesh to her parents Mazharuddin Khan and Ismat Ara Khan.[5] Her early singing lessons began with her uncleAbdul Ali and continued later under the tutelage ofSanjida Khatun and Atiqul Islam atChhayanaut andBulbul Academy of Fine Arts (BAFA) inDhaka. 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.[6] However, soon her inner self came to the realization that music was her destiny. She received a scholarship from theIndian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) to study inSangit Bhavana atSantiniketan, the university that was founded by Tagore himself. She took lessons from artistes includingKanika Bandyopadhyay,Nilima Sen,Sailajaranjan Majumdar,Santidev Ghosh,Gora Sarbadhikary,Manju Bandyopadhyay andAsesh Bandyopadhyay.[7] 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.[citation needed]
In 2021 she completed her research on Rabindra Sangeet at the University of Dhaka, for which she received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.[citation needed]
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.[8] Inspired by Kanika Bandyopadhyay, she founded in 1992Shurer 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 ofTagore 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'sGitobitan, which was titledSruti Gitobitan.[9]
Media related toRezwana Choudhury Bannya at Wikimedia Commons| International | |
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