About Kumud Diwan

Kumud's passion for Hindustani Classical music has committed her to studying its techniques and nuances. She has a “Sangeet Prabhakar” from the Prayag Sangeet Samiti, Allahabad in vocal music. She is a graded artist of All India Radio and an empanelled artist of ICCR. She has been trained by Smt. Anima DasGupta, and also had the opportunity to learn from Smt Shanti Hiranand, a disciple of Begum Akhtar. She has trained in the Banaras Gharana Thumri gayaki with Pandit Bhola Nath Mishra and excels in the Poorab-Ang semi-classical genre of music, namely Thumri, Dadra, Chaiti, Kajri etc.

As a result of her tutelage under the above Gurus, she has a singular appeal to the audience with her repertoire of Banaras Thumris as well as of the Lucknow Thumris of the Begam Akhtar tradition. Kumud has a gifted voice quality that lends itself to all forms of classical music. Given the advantage of her Darbhanga (Bihar) origins, Kumud sings with equal ease in Bhojpuri, Braj Bhasha and Awadhi, dialects spoken in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, in which most lyrics of Thumri have been written.

Kumud combines excellence from the world of academia and the realm of music, and is an artist to watch out for. Her communication skills are evident when she does a lecture cum demonstration of the Poorab-Ang Gayaki. She has conducted several Lecture/Demo sessions at some prestigious colleges of the Delhi University and Universities in Punjab. She is a Judge with the Association of Indian Universities (A.I.U) and has been visiting Universities countrywide to facilitate the activities of the A.I.U.   She received the “Sangeet Natak Akademy” research grant for the year 2008 and is working on a project of reviving rare thumris. She has recently been selected for a senior fellowship by the Ministry of Culture for researching the comparative styles and regional influences in 'Semi-Classical' music. These distinctions reinforce her commitment as a performer and a scholar of music, and are an endorsement of her immense talent. Her concerts have been received rave reviews from the media and she is among the most sought after young thumri performers today.

Kumud has received mentoring and guidance on her research work from the following musicologists:
-Padmashree Gajendra Narayan Singh of Patna.
-Padmabhushan Dr. R. C. Mehta of Baroda.
-The late Pandit Ramashray Jha of Allahabad.
-Dr. Vijay Verma of Jaipur.
-Shri Amar Nath Sharma, Collector Customs and Excise, New Delhi..

Her musical mentors are:
-H.E Jyoti Pande, India's Ambassador to Kyrgysstan.
-Shri Vijay Ranchan, Ex-Power Secretary, Government of Gujarat.
-Dr. Ausaf Ali, Director Hamdard Archives and Research Centre, Jamia Hamdard University, New Delhi.

Photos on this site are courtesy renowned photographer, Avinash Pasricha, who greatly appreciates Kumud's music.