About
Vidya Rao is a renowned Hindustani classical singer, celebrated for her delicate thumri and dadra, and a writer and scholar of music. Trained first in khayal under Professor B.N. Datta and Pandit Mani Prasad of the Kirana gharana, she became for many years a disciple of the legendary Vidushi Naina Devi in the purab ang thumri style, and continued her study under Shanti Hiranand and Girija Devi.
Rao's repertoire ranges over thumri-dadra and ghazal, the songs of medieval Sufi and Bhakti poets such as Amir Khusrau and Kabir, and verses from Hindu, Buddhist and Islamic traditions. A recipient of Ford Foundation and Ministry of Culture fellowships, she has written extensively on the social history of thumri and gender in music, contributing to platforms including Sahapedia, and has been a visiting professor at JNU. Her memoir of her guru, Heart to Heart: Remembering Nainaji, is widely admired.
The artistry
Rao sings thumri and dadra in the delicate purab ang style, with an emphasis on emotional depth, poetic meaning and the many shades of the nayika. Her scholarship informs her performance, giving her renditions of Sufi and Bhakti verse a rare interpretive richness.
Rao offers a host a refined thumri-dadra recital of great subtlety, or a lecture-performance on the form's poetry and social history. Ideal for connoisseur, heritage and academic programmes. [Atlas Assessment]
A rare artist-scholar who both performs and interprets thumri, preserving the purab ang style and its social history.