Renowned classical vocalist Vidushi Sumitra Guha is known as much for her melodious voice as for her varied and rich repertoire that comprise Carnatic classical to khayal, thumri, tappa, tarana and the Vedic chants, Sanskrit stotras, devotional music to Rabindra Sangeet and much more. A trained musician in both the Carnatic and the Hindustani streams of Indian classical music, the Padma Shri Awardi loves all kinds of music. She is a true traditionalist taking pride in her own tradition but open to the beauty of other traditions too.
Sharing about her first experiments with World Music, when she sang Kabir with Robin Hogarth and his African Choir of Gospel Music, she reiterates the fact that her own parampara and guru-kripa (the blessings of Gurus) has enabled her to be firmly rooted in her own tradition, while experimenting with the world music. Initiated by her mother, the Carnatic vocalist Rajlakshmi Raju and further trained under the Carnatic Sangeet Vidwan S.R. Janakiraman, her journey towards the Hindustani classical began with Pt. A. Kanan and Malavika Kanan of Kirana Gharana, after she got fascinated by their melodious music during a music festival at Shantiniketan, where she was studying philosophy and music. She still remembers her late gurus with deep respect, who bestowed upon her not only the knowledge but also her passionate love for music.
She loved participating in the Omkara project of Rupam Sarmah, a versatile artiste from Assam, based in California, who specialises in meditation. Guha says she first related to Rupam with the Naad-Yoga. Then he invited her to lend her voice for the Omkara project, where many Grammy Award winners participated including Pt. Vishwa Mohan Bhatt. One may listen to her tracks, she says, in the album that was released on that occasion.
This musical relation with Rupam and the Omkara project enthused Guha to conceive and work on her latest project ‘Musical Journey Towards Rising India’ that made waves in three cities of France this January, before she presented it at the India Habitat Centre last week. Celebrating the 70th year of our independence, Guha gave a flying start to this theme oriented project and performance with three cities of France - Paris, Marseille and Nantes in January 2018 around our Republic Day. She sounds excited to share that the programme was very well received and got an overwhelming response.
She has taken Indian music and culture, right from where it originated, “the Vedas and Upanishads and brought it to contemporary India that is rising in both, science and spirituality,” she avers. “The project comprises classical, devotional and folk to the meditative Chakra music, and patriotic songs that thrived during India’s freedom struggle.”
She was assisted by a gifted group of musicians like Pt. Rajendra Prasanna on flute, Aryendu Mukherjee, disciple of Subhankar Banerjee on tabla and the choir of trained vocalists from her own institution ‘Sumadhur Hamsadhwani’. “We want to show and tell the story of ‘The Musical Journey towards Rising India’, from Vedic period (dating back to 3000 BC) with a message of ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ and ‘Sarve Bhavantu Sukhinah’– the message of love and peace to the world.”
