- Source: Anuradha Pal
Anuradha Pal is an Indian Tabla player and composer who began learning the tabla before the age of seven. Despite traditional gender expectations around the instrument, Pal was encouraged to study tabla alongside her brother. In 1996, she founded Stree Shakti, one of India's first all-female classical music ensembles.
Early life
Anuradha Pal was born in Mumbai to Devinder Pal, a professional in the pharmaceutical industry, and Ila Pal, a painter and writer. She trained under renowned tabla maestros Ustad Alla Rakha and Ustad Zakir Hussain of the Punjab Gharana.
Career
She first performed with her teachers when she was 15 years old, and had then been accompanying Hindustani and Carnatic Classical vocalists, instrumentalists and dancers since she was 13.
In 2018, she led 217 tabla players on one stage, to pay tribute to her teacher Alla Rakha in celebration of his birth centenary.
In January 2018 she was awarded the Ministry of WCD First Ladies Award' by the President of India for being the first and youngest female Indian musician to perform at the WOMAD and Przystanek Woodstock festivals.
She composed the background score for M. F. Husain's film Gaja Gamini. The score features only her tabla and her voice. She has also composed music for NGMA, short films, documentaries, theatre and other commissioned work and events.
She has conducted lecture demonstrations and workshops at Harvard University, Berklee College of Music, M.I.T (USA), Vienna Boys Choir, Palazzo Ducale (Italy), MilapFest (U.K), Monash University (Australia) and was invited as an artist-in-residence by the New England Conservatory of Music in 2006.
She represented India at the Asian Performer's Summit in Japan in 1999 and has also been invited to perform at the SAARC and CHOGM summits.
She performed at the Dior fall 2023 show at the Gateway of India in Mumbai.
Compositions and collaborations
In 2023 and 2024, Anuradha Pal performed a series of concerts under the titles "Anuradha's Tablas Sing Stories" and "Ramayan on Tabla".
She has also collaborated with other musicians. The all-female Hindustani-Carnatic instrumental ensemble Anuradha Pal's Stree Shakti was founded on International Women's Day in 1996. The group have worked with various female musicians, and have played at international music festivals. In 2002, they toured with the Pan-African Orchestra from Ghana for a concert tour of UK and Ireland.
The Anuradha Pal Collective is an ensemble formed in 2023.
Social Work
= Contribution to Female Empowerment
=Anuradha has been promoting other female musicians struggling in male dominated fields, thus through her band Stree Shakti, for over 28 years.
She has performed at Sri Agrasen Kanya PG College (Varanasi), Rebel Girls Interactive (Delhi), Ruia College (Mumbai) to inspire young girls towards self-empowerment and building self-esteem.
She wrote the lyrics ‘Khud ko tu Pehchaan de’ and composed the anthem for Ministry of Women and Child Development's Nari Shakti campaign in March 2018.
For her contributions, she was appointed the Brand Ambassador of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi's Beti Bachao Beti Padhao yojana in 2017.
She was also the UNICEF Brand Ambassador for female empowerment, education and inclusion in 2006.
During the covid pandemic, Anuradha distributed warm blankets to over 200 women in Kasniyawad village near Udaipur and provided medical relief to poor children & women from the Bhil community, under her Stree Shakti URJA initiative. She also provided food rations to over 100 families and to many marginalised, widowed, old, disabled and destitute women across 12 villages.
On International Day of the Girl child 2020, Anuradha instituted the Padmashri M.T. Vyas Stree Shakti award, in memory of her grandfather and well-known educationist Maganlal Tribhuvandas Vyas, to encourage young girls practicing Indian music or dance towards social service. In 2021, she honoured four young girls from Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan & Madhya Pradesh, for being involved in social initiatives like preserving & propagating folk & tribal art forms, brightening the lives of young cancer patients through music & dance, creating awareness about climate change, female foeticide, sustainable development & raising funds for poor households during the cover pandemic. The award was presented in a grand online ceremony in the presence of Dr. Kiran Bedi, Usha Uthup, Anup Jalota, Shaina NC, Sandeep Marwah among various luminaries from the fields of business, education, social service, arts and culture.
= Anuradha Pal Cultural Foundation (APCF)
=Anuradha Pal Cultural Foundation (APCF) is a non-profit company dedicated to preserving traditional Indian culture, empowering women & youth, promoting unity amidst diversity & environmental awareness. Anuradha Pal channels her foundation APCF to conceptualise and curate ‘Wellness Experiences’ – by presenting a unique, holistic approach to elevate the five senses and achieve a healthy mind, body and soul, by using the therapeutic benefits of Musical and Rhythmic Meditation.
APCF's flagship socio-cultural initiatives 1) Positive Weekends™ & 2) Workshops of Wellness (WOW) have already benefited tens of thousands of children and adults, towards wellness and positivity.
In recognition of APCFs commitment & contributions to music and society, director Anuradha Pal received the Mumbai Cultural Sustainability award 2024 from Vivekanand Youth Foundation and the WOW Iconic Wellness and Spiritual Award 2023.
= Social Service
=During the COVID-19 lockdown, Anuradha mobilised lakhs of rupees and sent food ration and blankets to aid disadvantaged, old and disabled women and children, poor musicians and instrument makers in villages across 20 states of India - Assam, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Delhi, Maharashtra, Uttarakhand, Odisha, West Bengal, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
From July 2020 onwards, Anuradha sent financial help directly to bank accounts of beneficiaries from underprivileged communities like Bhil, Manganiar, Lakha, Jogi, Garo, Kathodi, Koch-Rajbongshi, Dhadi tribes, Meghwal, Charkula, Ponung, Matka Bhawai, Terahtali, Kalbeliya dancers, Manta Drummers, Kathputli artists, Knife jugglers and Bahurupiyas.
In January 2021, she organised ‘Aatmanirbhar Kala Ke Sangh Music Festival' and gave opportunity to 25 marginalized Folk and Classical musicians from 9 states to perform online and monetize their art.
On her birthday on 8 May 2021, Anuradha and her husband donated a wheel chair, walker and over 1200 gloves and masks to patients, doctors and frontline workers in Mumbai's BMC Covid care centre and MLC offices, in the presence of the Mayor of Mumbai, Smt Kishori Pednekar.
Awards and media recognition
= Awards
=Anuradha Pal is a recipient of 120+ prestigious awards and citations. Some of the prominent awards received by her -
= Media Recognition
=Featured as one of 51 women achievers of India in children's book 'The Dot that went for a walk released in 2019, along with Rani Laxmibai, Deepika Padukone, Ela Bhatt, Chhavi Rajawat amongst others.
Featured as one of the pre-eminent Torchbearers of Indian Classical Music in a book released in 2017 along with other young maestros like Mandolin U. Srinivas, Shankar Mahadevan, Kaushiki Chakraborty, amongst many others.
Featured as a Woman of Pure Wonder in a book by Vodafone Foundation in 2016 along with Justice Leila Seth, Sanjana Kapoor, Shovana Narayan, Deepa Malik, amongst various other women achievers.
Featured on Polish TV's major European channel as Asia's Youth Icon in 2008.
Featured in Documentary Gender Bender on women who have excelled & broken barriers in male dominated fields in 2006.
Featured in a film titled Woman of Substance by Doordarshan National Archives in 2006.
Featured in a documentary titled All About Her on Times Now channel in 2004.
Featured in the film Adventure Divas by the American Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) as one of the great women achievers of India and the World in 2001.
BBC World Service broadcast Anuradha Pal's Stree Shakti LIVE at WOMAD Festival in 56 countries in 1999.
Featured in the documentary titled Aaj ki Nari by Films Division of India in 1999.
BBC Radio World Service Program featured her as one of the Five Prominent Women Musicians of India in 1991.
Personal
Anuradha Pal resides in Mumbai. She conducts personalised and online percussion classes at Anuradha Pal Cultural Academy (APCA Mumbai) in Juhu.
Discography
She has released music albums and instruction DVDs through her own label Sur aaur Saaz.
References
External links
The Hindu year 2009
The Hindu year 2006
Golden Horn Records
Berklee College of Music
South Asian Women's Network
Website
Sur aaur Saaz
Report on DNA
The right note on www.masala.com
Classical musical maestros world on Times of India
Report on Tribune India
Report on Mid-day
operatheatremadlenianum.com
Report on New York Times Archived 25 December 2017 at the Wayback Machine
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