Surashri Kesarbai Kerkar

Infobox musical artist
Name = Kesarbai Kerkar
कॆसरबाई कॆरकर


Img_capt =
Img_size =
Background = solo_singer
Birth_name = Kesarbai Kerkar
Alias =
Born = 13 July, 1892
Died = 16 September, 1977
Origin = Keri, Goa
Genre = Hindustani Classical Music - Khayal
Occupation = Hindustani Classical Vocalist
Years_active = ??
Label = ??
URL =

Hindustani vocalist Surashri Kesarbai Kerkar (Devanagari: "सुरश्री" कॆसरबाई कॆरकर) (b. July 13, 1892 – d. September 16, 1977) is considered one of the finest and most powerful Indian classical singers of the 20th century.

Biography

Early life

Born in the tiny village of Keri (also spelled "Querim"), Goa (then a Portuguese colony), at the age of eight Kerkar moved to Kolhapur where she studied for eight months with Abdul Karim Khan. Upon her return to Goa, she studied with the vocalist Ramkrishnabuwa Vaze (1871-1945). At the age of 16 she migrated to Bombay, where she studied with various teachers, eventually ending up as disciple to Ustad Alladiya Khan (1855-1946), the founder of the Jaipur-Atrauli gharana, beginning in 1921.

Career

Kerkar eventually achieved wide renown, performing regularly for aristocratic audiences. She was very particular about the representation of her work and consequently made only a few 78 rpm recordings, for the HMV and Broadcast labels.

Kerkar was awarded the decoration of Padma Bhushan by the government of India in 1969, and in the same year the government of the Indian state of Maharashtra conferred upon her the title of "Rajya Gayika." Indian Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) is said to have been very fond of Kerkar's singing. Her honorific title "Surashri" (or "Surshri") literally means "excellent voice" ("sur" meaning "voice" and "shri" meaning "excellent), and was bestowed on her in 1948 by the Sangeet Pravin Sangitanuragi Sajjan Saman Samiti of Calcutta. In her ancestral village of Keri, the Surashree Kesarbai Kerkar High School now occupies the site of Kerkar's former second home, and the house where she was born still stands, less than one kilometer away. A music festival called the Surashree Kesarbai Kerkar Smriti Sangeet Samaroha is held in Goa each November and a music scholarship in her name is awarded annually to a University of Mumbai student.

Kerkar has the further distinction of having one of her recordings, "Jaat Kahan Ho", duration 3:30 (an interpretation of raga Bhairavi) included on the Voyager Golden Record, a gold-plated copper disc containing music selections from around the world, which was sent into space aboard the Voyager 1 and 2 spacecrafts in 1977. The recording was recommended for inclusion on the Voyager disc by the ethnomusicologist Robert E. Brown, who believed it to be the finest recorded example of Indian classical music.

Since 2000, several CDs of her archival recordings have been released, including one on the "Golden Milestones" series, which contains several of her most famous songs.

Recordings

* "Classical Vocal" CD (2008) from Sangeet Natak Akademi
* [http://www.khazana.com/et/products/product.asp?mscssid=QP4DVPMLC7DD8HKE0END389VA8500439&sku=INMU7107&Region=&Country=India&Department=Music&Sub%5FDept=&new%5Ftarget=%2Fet%2Ffeatured%5Fincludes%2Ffeatured%5Fcolumn%5FKesarbai%2Easp&mscsstcid=&MSS%2ERequest%2ECategory%20Name=&MSS%2ERequest%2ESKU=INMU7107&MSS%2ERequest%2EProduct%20Name=Golden%20Milestones%20%20%2D%20Surshri%20Kesarbai%20Kerkar "Golden Milestones" (2003)]
* [http://www.khazana.com/et/products/product.asp?mscssid=CF2V0K5H1UGE9GJL610CT2QAUHSC5MNE&Region=&Country=India&Department=Music&Sub%5FDept=&sku=INMU7925&new%5Ftarget=%2Fet%2Ffeatured%5Fincludes%2Ffeatured%5Fcolumn%5FKesarbai%2Easp&mscsstcid=&MSS%2ERequest%2ECategory%20Name=&MSS%2ERequest%2ESKU=INMU7925&MSS%2ERequest%2EProduct%20Name=Vintage%2078%20Rpm%20Recording%20on%20CD%20%2D%20Classical%20Vocal%20%2D%20%20%20Kesarbai%20Kerkar Vintage 78 Rpm Recording on CD]
* [http://www.underscorerecords.com/catalog/audio/details.php?cat_id=04AM011 "Living Music of the Past" CD from Underscore Records site]

* [http://www.sangeetkendra.org "Baithak Series - Live concert Recordings" A set of 4 CDs Published by Sangeet Kendra]

External links

* [http://www.parrikar.org/images/kesarbai_album/ Kesarbai's Photo Album from Rajan P. Parrikar website]