9 September 2024/

EXPERIENCE MONSOON MELODIES: REKHA SURYA’S BAITHAK IN NEW DELHI ON 14 SEPTEMBER 2024

On 14 September 2024, at 7:00 PM, the Srishti Club House in New Delhi will come alive with the soulful strains of Hindustani classical music as SRWA presents the “Baithak of Monsoon Melodies” by the internationally acclaimed musician Rekha Surya.

Rekha Surya, the youngest disciple of the legendary Begum Akhtar, who was honored with the Padma Shri and posthumously with the Padma Bhushan by the Government of India, and also trained under the esteemed musician Girija Devi. In this special performance, she will enchant the audience with ghazals, as well as Kajri, Jhoola and Dadra—light classical forms that have been beautifully adapted from folk traditions into classical repertoires. 

“Saawan, Jhoola, Kajri are all season-related short texts, originating as folk music but musically expanded in the classical tradition,” says eminent musician Rekha Surya.

A recipient of the prestigious Karamvir Puraskar in 2012 for her dedication to singing Sufi poetry in Thumri-Dadra-Ghazal and preserving traditional Ghazal-Gayaki, Rekha Surya is an A Grade Artist with All India Radio and is empanelled in the artist category with ICCR. Her illustrious career has seen her perform across India and internationally, including at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and prestigious universities such as Cornell, Yale, MIT, Columbia and Harvard. She has also represented India at the Asian Music Festival in Sri Lanka in 1999 and the International Falak Festival in Tajikistan in 2006.

Having been featured twice by BBC London, Rekha Surya continues to reside in New Delhi, where she remains a beacon of Hindustani classical music.