1. Home
2. Education

AWARDS AND HONOURS

YB WEB DESK. Dated: 4/22/2021 12:19:22 PM

Vidushi Sumitra Guha: Recipients of Padma Shri

Vidushi Sumitra Guha is an Indian classical vocalist, known for her expertise in the Carnatic and Hindustani schools of classical music. The Government of India honored her in 2010, with the fourth highest civilian award of Padma Shri. Biography Sumitra Guha, née Raju, was born in Andhra to a locally known singer, Smt. Rajyalakshmi Raju and R. G. Narayana Raju, a retired Deputy Collector, a native of Tirumala Reddypalle, Chitoor Dist. Her sister is the noted Carnatic vocalist and exponent of the sankirtana of gospel of the 15thcentury saint-composer, Annamacharya, Smt. Shobha Raju and her grandnephew, is the internationally published poet, Sreyash Sarkar. Guha took to music at an early age, receiving the first lessons in music from her mother. Her formal education in music started at the age of eleven from S. R. Janakiraman, a renowned music guru of Carnatic Classical Music. Having grown up in a small village of Andhra Pradesh, she wanted to become a doctor because of the nobility of the profession. Her father, having been transferred to Nepal, suggested that she join Visva- Bharati University, Shantiniketan. She carried on with her academic education, pursuing graduate studies in philosophy. She started learning Hindustani music in 1964 and continued her music studies under Pandit A. Kanan and Vidushi Malabika Kanan of Kirana Gharana, and later received some guidance from Sushil Kumar Bose, a renowned exponent of music who learned under the tutelage of Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan of the Patiala Gharana, all in the culturally enriching atmosphere of Calcutta Guha continued her studies even after her marriage in a Bengali family at the age of 19, and in 1972, became a B-grade artist of the All India Radio. The same year, she debuted as a performer with her concert at Thirumala temple in Tirupati. At AIR, she got the opportunity to participate in four chain concerts of the station in 1982, 85, 89 and 90 and several Radio Sangeet Sammelans and national programmes for AIR and Doordarshan. By 1995, she got the title of Vidhushi. and the same year she became a Top Grade artist of the All India Radio. SGuha is proficient in Carnatic and Hindustani schools of music and is the first Andhra woman to sing Hindustani music, but is more aligned to the latter with a known leaning towards the Kirana Gharana. The depth of the alaap, the slow elaboration of notes in the vistaar and the stability of swaras became her signature style and she became one with the putative Gharana with an exceptional quality.