Biography
Mala Ganguly is a North Indian Virtuoso Vocalist, Music Director, Composer, SAG Actress, Visual Artist, Educator, Founder of the Ragmala Music Ensemble, and the Founder-President of the Surmala Music Foundation. Pioneering the usage of Indian Classical Music in mainstream American commercials, Mala Ganguly, as a professional touring and recording concert artist, performs regularly throughout North America. She is highly acclaimed within and without the Indian communities for her golden "mellifluous" voice, virtuosity, & spontaneous vocal improvisations.
Her remarkable live performances give her audiences an inspired and impassioned experience of the heart and soul of the Classical and Semi-Classical styles of North Indian vocal music. She has been described as the "Darling of Portland", "The Nightingale of California", and the "Melody Queen of Los Angeles".
Mala Ganguly, was born of a musical family in Kolkata, Bengal, India, and began her first music instruction at the age of 5. Later, she was trained in Classical North Indian vocal by Pundit A. T. Kanan and Professor Amiya Ranjan Banerjee of the Bishnupur Gharana. She learned light music from great vocalists and music directors in Kolkata, such as Himaghna Roy Chaudhury, Sudhin Das Gupta, Satinath Mukherjee, and Hemant Kumar.
Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, the world renowned sarodist, founder, and president of the Ali Akbar College of Music in San Francisco, has stated, "…Mala Ganguly is a highly accomplished vocalist as well as a skilled teacher of Indian music, whose work and artistry has received much appreciation from both the Indian and non-Indian communities." She gives lecture demonstrations at colleges and universities, and performs worldwide.
Widely acclaimed for her extraordinary vocal skill, Mala Ganguly is especially appreciated for her sweet timbre, flexibility, spontaneous complex vocal improvisations, and technical virtuosity. She works regularly with composers in jingles, voice-overs, film overlays, and fusion music. She composes, performs and tours with several professional Indian dance companies, both North and South. She is one of the most versatile of Indian vocalists, and her vast repertoire includes Light North Indian Classical Ghazals, Thumries, Bhajans, Geets, and Qwwalis (devotional songs of India). She sings in Bengali, Urdoo, Punjabi, Hindi, Oriya, & English. She is the founder, music director, composer-in-residence, and virtuoso vocalist of the Ragamala Music Ensemble, which presented the world premier of her new raga, Malaranjani.
Contributing to the performing arts on stage, for radio, and television, Mala Ganguly has sung as a playback singer in Indian (Bengali) films under the direction of the late Hemant Kumar. She has sung on All India Radio, KPFK - Los Angeles, and for film voice-overs. She sang for the movie, "The Man from Elysian Field" starring Andy Garcia and also for the movie trailer for the European release of "The Perfect Murder", with Michael Douglas. She sang for Kenny Logan for the Walt Disney's European version of the feature film, "Jungle Book", and has lent her inspirational voice for the angel dream sequences in the film, "Christmas Box", starring Maureen O'Hara and Richard Thomas. Her captivating voice has been heard throughout America in television commercials for Ameritrade, Kenwood, and the 1995 award-winning Nike commercial. She participated in Will Smith's 1998 MTV Music Award Winning Best Rap Video, "Gettin' Jiggy Wit It", as a dance performer. As a SAG actress, Mala Ganguly's talents were utilized in EBAY's 2005 national commerical. Recordings are available on compact discs.
In 2007 Mala Ganguly was honored to be included in the Ali Akbar College of Music, founded by legendary sarodist, Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, "The First Forty Years 1967-2007" Commemorative Historical Publication.
Mala Ganguly has received many awards, and is a member of several distinguished professional associations. As a Visual Artist, Mala Ganguly holds a B.A. in Art and although her commissioned paintings are the property of private collectors, many of her original paintings, composites, and art work are exhibited regularly.
Artist descriptions on Last.fm are editable by everyone. Feel free to contribute!
All user-contributed text on this page is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply.
