“Padmini Rao is now acknowledged as one of the most gifted voices to emerge from the Kirana gharana, a style that has produced such legends as Pandit Bhimsen Joshi and Gangubai Hangal.”
When Ustad Zia Mohiuddin Dagar asked Padmini K. Rao to go look at the moon, she unquestioningly did so. The next day he explained a musical nuance she will never forget.
“Padmini Rao has kept her musical passions alive by performing regularly all over the world and spreading the musical heritage and khayal.”
Hindustani classical singer Padmini Rao talks about her musical lineage, values and teaching.
It was the year 1982; I was a fresh graduate in Chemistry from Bombay University- a slightly confused young lady, on the threshold of several avenues which beckoned me. Should I pursue a course as a research scholar in Organic Chemistry- my first love? Or should I throw myself into the heady, exciting and challenging world of avant-garde theatre (a brief but intensely fascinating stint with the talented Shri Jayadev Hattangady’s theatre group had thrown my well-ordered universe topsy turvy.) Or should I pursue a path in Classical Music- which has always been a guiding ‘dhruva-taara’ for me all along , steadfast but so subtle that, I, myself was not wholly aware of just how much, a life within and around music meant to me.
“ Music to me is a spiritual journey into the soul and I have felt this especially in the making of Krishn—Kanhai ”
The first strains of music for this collection awoke in my heart during a trip to Vrindavan, a holy confluence of spiritual vibrations, poetic imagery and the cultural heritage of India; all wedded to the tales of Lord Krishna’s boyhood and youth.
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