Monday, August 19, 2013
GIRIJA DEVI ( born,May
8, 1929) is an Indian classical singer of the Banaras gharana.
She performs classical and light classical music and has helped elevate the
profile of thumri.
Devi made her public debut 1949 on All India Radio Allahabad,
after getting married to a businessman circa 1946, but faced opposition from
her mother and grandmother, because it was traditionally believed that no upper
class woman should perform publicly.Devi agreed not to perform privately
for others, but gave her first public concert in Bihar in 1951. She
studied with Sri Chand Misra until he died in the early 1960s, worked as a
faculty member of the ITC Sangeet Research Academy in Kolkata in
the 1980s and of the Banaras Hindu University during the early 1990s,
and taught several students to preserve her musical heritage. Devi often
toured and continues to perform in 2009.
Devi sings in the Banaras gharana and performs the purabi
ang thumri style typical of the tradition, whose status
she helped elevate. Her repertoire includes the semi-classical
genres kajri, chaiti, and holi and she
sings khyal, Indian folk music, and tappa.The
New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians states that her
semi-classical singing combines her classical training with the regional
characteristics of the songs of Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh.Devi
is considered as "Queen Of Thumri" She is known to
have been the teacher of the founder of The Alankar School of Music, Mrs. Mamta
Bhargava whose Indian Classical music school has attracted students from
hundreds of miles away.
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