Sisir Kana Dhar Chowdhury (also written Sisirkana Dhar Choudhury; 27 December 1937 – 9 March 2021) introduced the viola to the Hindustani music sphere, and played a rare style of violin with an extra fifth melody string and sympathetic strings. Chowdhury was awarded the Sangeet Natak Academi Award in 1997 for her contribution to the field of Indian classical violin, and received the

Dover Lane Music Conference The Dover Lane Music Conference is an annual Indian classical music festival held in the month of January at Nazrul Mancha, an outdoor auditorium in south Kolkata. The Dover Lane Music Conference is an all night concert attended by visitors fr ...

's Sangeet Samman Award in 2017.

Training

Chowdhury was seven years old when she began to play violin and vocal music. She later received training from

V. G. Jog Vishnu Govind Jog, better known as V. G. Jog (22 February 1922 – 31 January 2004), was an Indian violinist. He was the foremost exponent of the violin in the Hindustani music tradition in the 20th century, and is credited for introducing ...

and Ali Akbar Khan, among others.

Musical performance

Chowdhury began her musical performance career in Kolkata in 1953. She was a frequent performer on All India Radio and Television Though it is difficult to find recordings and even more rare to find video of Chowdhury's performances, it is said that Chowdhury would often play the

alaap ''Alaap'' ( lit. Prelude) is a 1977 Indian musical drama film produced by Hrishikesh Mukerjee and N.C Sippy and directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee. The film stars Amitabh Bachchan, Rekha, Asrani, Farida Jalal, Om Prakash and Manmohan. The music ...

of a piece on viola, and use violin for the remaining portion of the concert. Sometimes an entire concert would be done in viola. In the 70's, she performed as a trio with Ali Akbar Khan and

Nikhil Banerjee Pandit Nikhil Ranjan Banerjee (14 October 1931 – 27 January 1986) was an Indian classical sitarist of the Maihar Gharana. Along with Pandit Ravi Shankar and Ustad Vilayat Khan, he emerged as one of the leading exponents of the sitar. He ...

at many music conferences in Kolkata. She also performed in international conferences, representing India as a cultural representative in Russia, Finland and Afghanistan, as well as at a conference in Nepal commemorating the country's independence. Both her violin and viola were of special construction, with a fifth melody string for increased range as well as the addition of sypathetic strings for resonance. A number of sources noted that it was rare for a woman in the 1950s to take up an instrument professionally, and those that did tended to be vocalists, in contrast with Chowdhury's specialty in bowed instruments.

Musicology

Along with her interest in playing music, Chowdhury made contributions to the field of

musicology Musicology (from Greek μουσική ''mousikē'' 'music' and -λογια ''-logia'', 'domain of study') is the scholarly analysis and research-based study of music. Musicology departments traditionally belong to the humanities, although some mu ...

. She was consulted in the writings of other ethnomusical scholars, and wrote her book ''The Origin and Evolution of Violin As a Musical Instrument: And Its Contribution to the Progressive Flow of Indian Classical Music'' in 2010. After retiring from her post as a professor at Rabindra Bharati University in 1997 she moved to the US to join the faculty of the Ali Akbar College of Music and transcribe the music of

Allauddin Khan Allauddin Khan, also known as Baba Allauddin Khan ( – 6 September 1972) was an Indian sarod player and multi-instrumentalist, composer and one of the most notable music teachers of the 20th century in Indian classical music. For a generation ...

from the collection there. Her transcriptions were of a unique quality because she trained under Khan's son, giving her special insight.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chowdhury, Sisir Kana Dhar 1937 births 2021 deaths Indian musicians Recipients of the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award