Dr. Kamala Shankar, Varanasi

The entry of the Western Guitar into the Hindustani Instrumental music is proved to be an interaction between the East and West. Dr. Kamala Shankar alias S. Kamala is the FIRST woman to transpose Indian Musical traditions to a Western Hawaiin Guitar to present Hindustani Classical Music.

Born in Tanjore district of Tamil Nadu, Kamala, whose early vocal music training was from her mother, proceeded to obtain a Bachelor's degree in Vocal Music.

Besides having a B.Sc. degree with Honours in Zoology from Benaras Hindu University (BHU), Kamala got her bachelors and masters degree in Guitar playing (with an initial training from Shri Shivnath Bhattarcharya of Varanasi). After this, she completed her doctorate under Late Dr. Gopal Shankar Mishra, Reader in Sitar, Faculty of performing arts, BHU. Followed by this, Kamala passed the qualifying examination for Lectureship on in Music conducted by U.G.C.

Kamala has also learnt Gayaki from the renowned vocalist Pt. Chhannoo Lal Mishra of Varanasi. And has developed her own unique way of playing the Guitar by blending Gayaki (vocal style) and Tantrakari-Ang (instrumental style) to present her repertoire of classical music.

Her achievements include receiving the Surmani Award from Sur Singar Samdad (Mumbai) ; fellowship in music from Ministry of HRD, Govt. of India ; felicitation by Bharat Ratna Smt. M.S. Subbalakshmi.

Kamala has performed at reputed concerts in India such as Swami Haridas Sangeet Sammelan (Mumbai), Sangeet Kala Mandir (Kolkata), Bharat Bhavan (Bhopal), Awadh Sandhya (Lucknow), Sangeet Parishad (Varanasi), Saptak (Ahmedabad), amongst others.

email: kamala@sudeepaudio.com

Click here to review other profiled artistes