- Rezwana Chowdhury Banya
Rezwana Chowdhury Banya (also variously cited as Rezwana Chowdhury Bonna, Rezwana Chowdhury Bonya and Rezwana Choudhury Bannya) is a contemporary
Rabindrasangeet singer widely hailed in both her nativeBangladesh andWest Bengal ,India as being one of the most versatile exponents of this musical genre. She is often referred to by aficianados solely by her nickname "Banya", which translates into English as "deluge". She is one of the most acclaimed former proteges ofKanika Banerjee .Tutelage at Visva Bharati
Banya has been singing from a very early age. According to an autobiographical account published in an online journal in 2001, as long as she remembered she dreamt of learning
Rabindrasangeet atVisva-Bharati University , the university set up byRabindranath Tagore on his ancestral property using money awarded for hisNobel Prize . Visva Bharati, to this day, remains a major center for learning Rabindra Sangeet in West Bengal, the other major university in India for this genre beingRabindra Bharati University . Over the years, both universities have developed distinctive styles of singing in this genre. Until the Visva Bharati's copyright of all of Tagore's songs expired, it was mandatory in India for any singer to obtain permission of the Music Board before cutting a record with songs composed by him. It was no wonder that after Banya completed her initial training fromChhāyānôt in Bangladesh, she wanted to study at Visva Bharati. However, she recounts that she had no intention of making a career out of music, and rather thought she would return to Bangladesh to get a degree in Economics. In the interim she had been admitted to the Bulbul Academy but her training there was cut short in1971 by theBangladesh Liberation War . Prior to and during the war, Pakistan suppressed aspects ofBangla language and culture. It was only after Independence that Bangladeshi singers were free to pursue this art form with renewed gusto.At Visva Bharati, renowned exponents such as
Kanika Banerjee ,Nilima Sen ,Ashesh Bandopadhyay , andSantideb Ghose were her mentors. In her autobiographical account she mentors the respect she had for her mentors at Viswa Bharati, particularly Kanika Banerjee. In addition, she learned other forms of Bangla music such as the folk "kirtan" and the classical "tappa". Among instruments, she can play theharmonium and theesraj .Critical acclaim
On completing her training, she became recognized as a master in the Visva Bharati style due to her clean rendition, impeccable accent, and her willingness to tackle even the most difficult and least popular songs. She has traveled extensively and has cut numerous albums in many countries, most notably in
Bangladesh andIndia . She also opened "Shurer dhara", a school for learning music inDhaka . In 2002 she was awarded the first Ananda Sangeet Puroshkar for being the best female Rabindra Sangeet artist, a feat she repeated the following year. She currently holds a faculty position in the Department of Theater and Music at theUniversity of Dhaka .References
* [http://www.parabaas.com/rabindranath/articles/mBonya1.html An excellent autobigraphical account published in Bangla script. This is one of the prime sources for this article]
* [http://www.anandadhara.com/index.php?action=Smt_Rezwana_Chowdhury_Bannya A biographical sketch in English]External links
* [http://www.univdhaka.edu/department/facultyDetail.php?bodyid=TMU&memberid=FMTMU96016 Her webpage at University of Dhaka]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.