Shanno Khurana | |
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_Shanno_Khurana%2c_for_her_contribution_in_Hindustani_Music%2c_at_investiture_ceremony_in_New_Delhi_on_March_29%2c_2006.jpg) PresidentKalam presentingPadma Bhushan to Khurana in 2006 | |
| Background information | |
| Born | (1927-12-23)23 December 1927 (age 97) Jodhpur, Rajasthan |
| Genres | Hindustani classical |
| Occupation(s) | singer, composer |
| Years active | (1940s –present) |
Shanno Khurana (born 23 December 1927) is an Indian classical vocalist and composer, from theRampur-Sahaswan gharana ofHindustani classical music. A disciple of the doyen of thegharana, UstadMushtaq Hussain Khan (d. 1964), she is known for performing rarebandish andraag, though her singing style includes genres likekhayal,tarana,thumri,dadra,tappa, tochaiti andbhajan. Born and brought up inJodhpur, she started singing onAll India Radio in 1945 inLahore, later shifted to Delhi, where she continued her singing on All India Radio, Delhi and in concerts and music festivals. She also pursued music education, finally earning her M.Phil. and PhD in music from theKairagarh University, and has undertakes extensive research onfolk music of Rajasthan. She is currently 97 years old.
She was awarded thePadma Shri in 1991, followed by thePadma Bhushan in 2006, the third highest civilian honour given byGovernment of India.[1] In 2002, she was conferred theSangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship, the highest honour in the performing arts conferred by theSangeet Natak Akademi, India's National Academy for Music, Dance and Drama. She has said in an interview that she wishes to live till 100 and become a centenarian.
Khurana was born and brought up in aPunjabi family inJodhpur, Rajasthan.[2][3] Her family was mostly non-musicians, consisting of doctors, engineers, and people working in foreign services. But her interest in music grew in her early years, when she saw her brother learning from musicologist and vocalist Pandit Raghunath Rao Musalgaonkar, a disciple and nephew of Raja Bhaiya Poonchwale ofGwalior gharana. Her conservative family didn't allow girls to learn music, but when her father saw her listening intently to classical music on radio, he allowed her to start her musical training at age 12 under Musalgaonkar.[4][5]
Khurana was married at age 18, to a dentist with theIndian Air Force and shifted toLahore, though she continued singing atAll India Radio (AIR), Lahore, starting in 1945.[6] Afterpartition of India, her family had to shift to Delhi, where her husband left Air Force and started his private practice. However, at the insistence of her husband, she started herriyaz once again, despite having two young children and an ailing mother-in-law. She practised with tabla maestro PanditChatur Lal, which continued for the following 16 years, and soon singing on radio as well. Meanwhile, Nirmala Joshi, who was secretary of theSangeet Natak Akademi at the time, invited her to teach classical music at her music school, Sangeet Bharati at Mandi House in Delhi.[4][7][8]
Subsequently, she was introduced to her next teacher via her husband, when musicologist and chief producer at AIR, Delhi,Thakur Jaidev Singh happened to be his patient. Singh helped her get confidence as she started touring toTurkey,Iran,Greece and other areas as a part of cultural delegations sponsored byGovernment of India.[6] Besides performing at notable music festival across India through the 1960s and '70s, including Tansen Sammelan, Gwalior, Harvallabh Festival,Jalandhar, andSwami Haridas Sangeet Sammelan, Mumbai. He taught her thepurab-ang Thumri, and later insisted her on joining theIndira Kala Sangeet University atKhairagarh,Madhya Pradesh, where eminent musicologist and teacherS. N. Ratanjankar who has remained principal ofBhatkhande Music Institute, was the Vice-Chancellor at the time. Singh was her guide through her M.Phil. and PhD in music, wherein she undertook an extensive study-tour ofRajasthan, for her research on thefolk music traditions of Rajasthan,tappa and folk songs.[6] For the next three years, travelled back and forth from Delhi, but managed to complete her education. She went on to training under V. R. Athawale ofGwalior Gharana and S. N. Ratanjankar ofAgra gharana, both of whom taught her rareragas, further expanding her repertoire. Finally, at the request of Singh, she trained under the doyen of Rampur-Sasawan gharana, singer Ustad Mushtaq Hussain Khan,[9] who was then teaching at theBharatiya Kala Kendra in Delhi. However, Mushtaq Hussain first tested her skills for over five months, finally one day when she successfully sang RaagNayaki-Kanada, he took her on formally as a student, via the ganda-bandh ceremony. After his untimely death in 1964, she continued her training under his son, the Ustad Ishtiaq Hussain Khan. This extensive and varied training helped her expand her musical repertoire to include rare raagas andbandish, besideskhayal, tarana, thumri, dadra, chaiti and bhajan, besidestappas andjangra, a folk form of Rajasthan.[3][10] Over the years, she has been involving in not just research and documentation ofaprachalit ragas (uncommon ragas), but also promoting them through music festivals and lecdem series.[4][7] Her organisation,Geetika, organises music festivals for women, andtala vadya kutcheri, an all-woman music festival,Bhairav se Sohni, held in 1983 and all-woman festival onaprachalit raags held in 1996.[8][11][12]
Over the years she composed directed and sung five full-length musicals, experimenting both with classical music as well as folk music styles.[6] Her operas includeHeer Ranjha (1956) with Sheila Bhatia, in which she also played the lead role,[12]Sohni Mahiwal in Punjabi (1963), where in Ustad Mushtaq Hussain, son of her guru sang with her, "Jahan Ara" inUrdu (1970),Chitralekha (1973, Hindi), based on the story byBhagwati Charan Verma and directed byB.V. Karanth has music composed on 80 classical ragas,[12] and "Sundari", based on the novel by the same name written byBhai Vir Singh in 1979.[5] In 2006, her music album of genre oftappas, titledSufi Raah was released by Parzor Foundation.[3][13]
Khurana was awarded thePadma Shri in 1991, followed by thePadma Bhushan in 2006, the fourth and the third highest civilian honour respectively given byGovernment of India.[14] In 2002, she was conferred theSangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship, the highest honour in the performing arts conferred by theSangeet Natak Akademi, India's National Academy for Music, Dance and Drama[15][16] and was later made a board member of the Sangeet Natak Akademi.[8]
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