Padmini Rao is a vocalist in the Hindustani Classical tradition. She is a seasoned and professional performing artiste of over 3 decades. Having lived outside India for a significant part of her life, she has been a torchbearer for Indian classical music at each of the places she has resided in and has also served as a roving ambassador for Indian classical music across the globe.

Academically, Padmini is a graduate in Chemistry with honours from the University of Bombay, where she was a rank holder (1981). Thereafter, she completed her post-graduation in music with distinction from the SNDT University Bombay, receiving a number of honours in the process, including the Gana Hira Award for musical excellence (1984).

She is an accomplished theater artiste and has worked in experimental and contemporary theater under the direction of stalwarts such as Shri Jaydev Hattangadi.
Her skills as a polyglot are borne out by her knowledge of six Indian languages. Additionally, she is a holder of the Diplome de Langue Francais from the Alliance Francaise and has a working knowledge of Dutch.
She received her vocal musical initiation at a relatively tender age under the guidance of Pandit Manohar Otavkar. Thereafter, over a period of six years, she received training in the sitar from Mrs Pramila Dagar. Discovering that her first love was for vocal music, Padmini reverted to the vocal form. She then underwent 11 years of rigorous training in voice culture under the guidance of Ustad Zia Mohiuddin Khan Dagar, the renowned scholar and Dhrupad and Rudra Veena maestro.

Indian classical music has traditionally been taught in a dedicated environment called the guru-shishya parampara ("teacher-student lineage") where the shishya or pupil stays at the guru’s residence and undergoes rigorous musical training under the tutelage of an accomplished guru or teacher over a large number of years. In the modern context, however, this has metamorphosed into an intensive and rigorous one-on one training with the Guru.

Even as her interest and musical talents flowered rapidly under the able guidance of Ustad Z.M. Dagar, Padmini completed her Master’s Degree in Music from the SNDT University under the tutelage of Dr. Prabha Atre. This was to lay the foundation for a long, fruitful, and enriching association with Dr.Prabha Atre. Her musical voyage has taken her through over two decades of hard training, polishing, and perfection at the hands of these two maestros.

Her art has been lovingly and painstakingly moulded, guided, and shaped by her Gurus. This, along with her dedicated efforts through rigorous riyaaz or practice, has made Padmini Rao one of the most exciting practitioners of her art.

Padmini has been performing and teaching over the last 30 years. With her forte being pure classical music (khayal), Padmini is equally at home with the slow and contemplative alaap, or the effervescent and exuberant drut (in khayal), the solemn, meditative quality or the spiritual idiom of the bhajan, as well as the light-hearted, romantic or playful thumri.

She combines her love of the performing art with its academic aspects. She has participated in seminars and conducted music workshops, on music education, the practical aspects of music, music theory- like the Rasa Theory on the aesthetic aspects of music, developmental techniques in khayal singing, music as a means for relaxation, and the time-theory of music. She has conducted seminars at various forums for students of music, lay audiences, and music lovers.

Music for relaxation, music for contemplation, music to soothe, music for introspection or music to touch and move the core of your being – Padmini’s Rao’s music has been described as all of these by listeners and fans worldwide. Whether in the gentle lilt of her Raga Bhoop, the grandeur of her Raga Bhimpalasi, the hypnotic quality of her Raga Kirvani, the tranquility of her Raga Yaman, or the piety, sense of total surrender, and melodic content of her bhajans, Padmini Rao’s music appeals to a wide range of musical aficionados.

Padmini Rao has been a regular performer on public and private platforms all over India and across the globe. She has performed at prestigious venues and music festivals around the world. She has resided at various points in her life and career in the Middle East, Europe, and the United States and has performed at different venues during these periods. These have included venues in Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, France, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand. She has performed extensively across the USA at various forums including at prestigious Ivy League Universities like MIT Boston MITHAS and the University of Pennsylvania – South Asia Centre.

As a part of her diverse musical dynamic, Padmini was a regular visiting faculty member at the Rishi Valley Education Centre and has composed the music for Hindi Ki Duniya, an educational project of learning language through music, sponsored by Rishi Valley Education Centre and distributed through Scholastic India. She has worked with international musicians in a World Music project “Music for Life” and has composed the background score for a short film.
She is an empanelled artiste of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) of the Government of India.

Padmini is a proficient and much admired teacher, who works with her students on a one-on-one basis, thus ensuring an intensely personal learning experience for every student.