April 11, 2008
Contact: Sara Leonard
Concert and Production Manager
Amherst College
413/542-2195
AMHERST, Mass.—Shanno Khurana, a renowned Hindustani vocal performer and musicologist, will give a concert on Wednesday, April 23, at 8 p.m. in the Buckley Recital Hall in the Arms Music Center at Amherst College. Khurana will perform with Maitreyi Majumdar, back-up vocals, swaramandal and tanpura; Akhtar Hasan, tabla; and Bharat Bhushan Goswami, sarangi.
Celebrated by India as a national treasure, Khurana has had a long and illustrious career. She was trained from a young age to project her voice with open abandon, zest and power, and has a voice that continues to captivate her audiences more than 60 years after her first radio broadcast in 1945. Her performance in Amherst is part of her final tour to the United States, which is made possible through the generosity of the Indian Council of Cultural Relations.
In a groundbreaking effort to bring the depth of Indian classical and folk music to the public, Khurana composed, directed and performed five operas from 1956 to 1980. Each opera was based on 70 classical ragas with a libretto drawn from culturally important Indian narratives, and was performed in Urdu, Punjabi and Hindi.
In addition to her extensive performance career, Khurana is a respected musicologist and has published numerous papers, including an in-depth musicological analysis and documentation of Rajasthani folk music.
Khurana’s concert is free and open to the public. Seating is by general admission, and no tickets are required.
The event is sponsored by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations; the Office of the President of Amherst College; the Georges Lurcy Lecture Series Fund at Amherst College; the Hamilton Fund; and the Departments of Art and the History of Art, Music, and Asian Languages and Civilizations.
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