Shanno Khurana is one of the greatest living treasures of Hindustani music who has enthralled audiences from the United States to London, Vienna and Paris, through the Middle East, Southeast Asia to Tokyo in some of the most memorable concerts of our times.
Shanno Khurana excels in the entire gamut of Hindustani musical forms. Her Khayal recitals are marked by their deeply affecting plaintive vilambit compositions that are contrasted with vivid drut and taranas. She sings thumris and dadras with the typical lilt and poignant depth of the poorab-ang. Musically, she has inherited a serious legacy: the tradition and rigour of the Rampur-Saheswan Gharana from Padmabhushan Ustad Mushtaq Husain Khan and the intellectual vision of the eminent philosopher and musicologist Padmabhushan Thakur Jaideva Singh.
In a pioneering effort to bring classical and folk music to the public, she composed, directed and sang in five operas which were each based on over 70 classical ragas. These achieved unprecedented acclaim right from the first one in 1956 to the last one in 1980. Her organization Geetika has brought our attention to some of the most serious issues affecting our music and musicians. To give women musicians a viable and respectable profession she started a festival called Bhairav-Se-Sohni in 1983 which has now grown into a nation-wide movement.
She has been awarded the Padmabhushan, Padmashri, Panjabi Akademi Award 2006 – 07 for lifetime contribution to music, Punjab Sangeet Natak Akademi Award and the Indira Gandhi Priyadarshani, the Baba Alauddin Khan Award, amongst many others.
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