Cultural Desk : dhakamirror.com
Today is the ninth anniversary of the death of the legendary Nazrul Sangeet singer Feroza Begum.
Feroza Begum was born on July 28, 1926 to Khan Bahadur Mohammad Ismail and Begum Kawakabonnessa.
Drawn to music at an early age, Feroza Begum started her formal music education under the tutelage of Chitta Roy at the age of 13 in Kolkata.
After a year, she began her music training under the direct supervision of Kamal Dasgupta, one of the top music directors of the subcontinent, whom she later married.
Feroza Begum’s first long-play record was released by Kolkata’s famous Colombia Recording Company in 1944. By then, she was already a regular performer at Kolkata Radio.
She took music lessons directly from national poet Kazi Nazrul Islam. She also devoted herself to collecting, publishing and distributing Nazrul Sangeet.
With a lot of dedication and hard work, Feroza Begum managed to establish Kazi Nazrul Islam’s songs under the title of Nazrul Sangeet.
She recorded over 700 songs and released 12 LP records, 4 EPs, 6 CDs and more than 20 audio cassette albums.
She received numerous awards, including, the Independence Award, Ekushey Padak, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Award, Nasiruddin Gold Medal, Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy Gold Award. She received D Litt from Burdwan University. She also received a Gold Disk from the renowned Japanese audio production company CBS.
She was honoured by the West Bengal government in India with the Nazrul Sammanana Award 2012. She was also posthumously awarded West Bengal’s highest cultural award, Banga Bibhushan Samman, in 2015.
She passed away on September 9, 2014.
