Prabha Atre
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Prabha Atre (b. 1932, Pune) is an eminent Maharashtrian vocalist of Kirana Gharana of music in India. Her contribution to music has gained her several awards, including Padma Bhushan (2002), which is among the highest civilian awards of the Republic of India.
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[edit] Early life
Her parents were Abhasaheb Atre and Indira Atre. The family did not have any background of music. During her childhood, she and her sister, Usha, were interested in music but had no plan to pursue this as a career. Her contact with serious music began as a coincidence. Her mother was not keeping good health, and someone suggested taking music lessons would benefit her. Accordingly, her mother started receiving music lessons. Prabha, an eight year girls at that time, would sit by her side. Only after five music lessons, her mother stopped taking the lessons. However, Prabha continued to learn music. Over next few years, she learnt music from renowned masters (gurus) including Sureshbabu Mane, and after his demise in 1952, from Hirabai Badodekar. She would also accompany Badodekar to different places all over India, and got exposure to different types of audience. Her first solo performance was at Mumbai at one of the annual Ganesha Festivals. From that point, she continued with regular public performance.
During all these years, she had completed graduation courses in science and law. She also completed a Ph. D. in music.
[edit] Publications
Prabha Atre had authored many books in her mother tongue Marathi, relating to her profession. Her dissertation for her doctoral thesis was titled Sargam. It pertained to the use of seven main musical notes in Indian classical music. Her first book, Swaramayee, was a compilation of essays and articles, originally published in many magazines and journals. Her second book named Swaralee (published: 1992) also received positive response. Both the books were translated into Hindi by the Government of Madhya Pradesh. Her third book titled Swaranginee, published in 1994, contains 200 of her compositions in classical and popular genre of music. Her book, Antahswar (published: 1997) was quite different: the book had many poems penned by her.
She hads presented many papers and delivered a number of lectures-cum-demonstrations in India and abroad. She has also been a visiting professor to a number of institutions in the West, including at the Rotterdam Conservatory, the Netherlands.
[edit] Awards
Her work has received official and non-official recognition. In 1976, she received the coveted Acharya Atre award for music. Jagatguru Shankaracharya conferred on her the title of Gana Prabha. Government of India conferred on her the Padma Shree in 1990. She received the Sangeet Natak Academy award in 1991. The first four months of 2002 was very special for her: she received four awards, including the Padma Bhushan.
[edit] A quote
“Music is a multi-limbed tree – to bring out the best in you. You have to turn your mind into a fine sensor that is able to absorb the psychology of the audience you are performing for, the sociological and cultural aspects of the genre you are presenting – be it khayal, thumri or ghazal – learn to grapple with acoustics and use them to maximum advantage and so on … “
[edit] Reference
- India’s 50 Most Illustrious Women (ISBN 81-88086-19-3) by Indra Gupta
