Sumitra Guha is a renowned name in the Gharana of Classical Music. Her singing uplifts her listener to a better quality of life and living. Her loyal dedication to music reflects in her exclusive concert where audiences too experience the soothing vocal performance.
Sumitra is rightly conditioned in two major schools of Indian Classic music viz. Carnatic and Hindustani. She received her first musical lesson from her mother who infused the spiritual connection in Sumitra through music. She received formal education under the famous vocal maestro S. R. Janakiraman (Sangeetha Vidwan) at the age of 11 years. After that Sumitra never looked back as she was already having skilled grip and mastery over Carnatic vocal. Sumitra was in her way of making mark in this métier by her amazing vocal art.
The man that hath no music in himself,
Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds,
Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils.
The motions of his spirit are dull as night,
And his affections dark as Erebus.
Let no such man be trusted.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
Sumitra joined Vishwa Bharati University in Shantiniketan to pursue her graduation in Philosophy after having done the pre-university course. It is the ground she found herself inclined to the Classical Hindustani music. It contains the universality of 'Swaras’, the intensity of 'Alaap’ and the eventual condensation in the 'Vistaar’ that affixed her. Under the guidance of Pt. A. Kanan and Vidushi Malavika Kanan she began her learning on Hindustani Classical music in the year of 1964. She was influenced by their style which helped her mould her own unique style of singing. Sumitra was finally trained by Sushil Kumar Bose, the talented disciple of Maestro Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan.
Sumitra came out in the world of professional singing in 1972 when she was a B-Grade artist under the AIR classification. By 1995 she was received with the title 'Vidushi’ for her excellence in vocal music. Her chain performance with Air in the years 1982, 1985, 1989 and 1990 received her wide acclamations. Sumitra was broadcasted nationwide during four Radio Sangeet Sammelans in 1988 (Mathura), 1994 (Bangalore), 1998 (Mumbai) and 2001 (Raipur). In the year 1985 Sumitra performed her first national performance on Doordarshan. Her first public performance was at the Thirumala temple in Tirupati at the event of Brahmotsav in 1972. Her outstanding performance in the event earned her gold medal and after that she became an eminent name in the Classical Indian music.
And the immortal music of Chopin
Which we had been discovering for several months
Since we were fourteen years old. And coffee grounds,
And the wonder of hands, and the wonder of the day
When the child discovers her first dead hand.
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
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