Bina Addy

Bina Addy (born about 1900, died 1962), also seen as Bini Addy, was an Indian singer of popular Bengali and western songs.

Bina Addy
Bina Addy, from a 1937 Australian magazine.
Born
Calcutta
Died1962
NationalityIndian
Other namesBini Addy
Occupationsinger

Early life

Bina Addy was from Calcutta, from a Bengali Christian family; two of her brothers became college professors.[1] Her voice first attracted notice in a church choir in Calcutta. She studied music in Europe after 1928, with Elena Gerhardt in Leipzig and Mario Cotogni in Rome.[2]

Career

Addy was considered a mezzo-soprano or contralto singer.[3][4] She was promoted as the first Indian woman to study Western music in Europe,[5] and the first to become a professional singer touring internationally.[6][7] She performed on BBC radio broadcasts between 1929 and 1932.[8][9] In 1931, the League of Nations Union in Croydon held a reception for Addy, where she performed.[10]

Addy sang in concerts, on radio, and at benefits for the YWCA and other organizations, in Australia and New Zealand in the 1930s.[2][11][12] She was involved in the centenary celebrations in South Australia in 1936.[13] Her programs were mainly Bengali songs, including works by Rabindranath Tagore,[14] but she sometimes included British folk songs, African-American spirituals, Italian arias, and German lieder.[15] She also gave short talks during her programs, about Gandhi, Tagore, and other Indian topics. She was often accompanied by women musicians.[6] "Her technique is assured and well-founded, and with this she associates an impressive sense of style," noted one Australian critic in 1937.[16]

"It is my sincere desire to create a better understanding between my country and other nations," she told an interviewer in 1937, "and if I could feel that I had in any way provided a link between the East and the West, I should be content."[2]

gollark: Also, it must know exactly what the user wants to do, and do it, even if they don't ask it to.
gollark: Also, anyone or anything in all possible universes must be able to use it.
gollark: It must be compatible with 76+9D universes.
gollark: Also, a piece of cheese we politely asked to compute.
gollark: You must port this program to run on my Windows 9 computer. Please develop it using PHP 6, our clients want to use that.

References
  1. "Education in India; Increasingly Popular Among Wealthy People". News. March 9, 1937. p. 8. Retrieved November 24, 2019 – via Trove.
  2. "Bina Addy Indian Contralto to Tour A. B. C." The Wireless Weekly (February 5, 1937): 67. via Trove
  3. "Indian Songstress in London; Miss Bina Addy's Work in England". Malaya Tribune. June 30, 1932. p. 10. Retrieved November 24, 2019 – via NewspaperSG.
  4. Fifield, Christopher (2017-11-22). Ibbs and Tillett: The Rise and Fall of a Musical Empire. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-351-12572-7.
  5. E. B. (January 19, 1931). "An Indian Singer; Miss Bina Addy's Recital at Rutland House". The Guardian. p. 11. Retrieved November 24, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. "Miss Bina Addy; 'At Home' in Concert Chamber". Evening Star. June 24, 1936. p. 15. Retrieved November 24, 2019 – via Papers Past.
  7. "Talented Bengalese Vocalist; Miss Bina Addy at Savoy". Evening Star. July 11, 1936. p. 19. Retrieved November 25, 2019 – via Papers Past.
  8. "Bina W. Addy (Mezzo-Soprano)". The Radio Times (311). 1929-09-13. p. 42. ISSN 0033-8060. Retrieved 2019-11-25.
  9. "The Gershom Parkington Quintet". The Radio Times (426). 1931-11-27. p. 70. ISSN 0033-8060. Retrieved 2019-11-25.
  10. Creighton, Sean (2018-08-29). "The original Croydon Peace Festival: the town's 'peace weeks' in 1930 and 1934". The Croydon Citizen. Retrieved 2019-11-25.
  11. "Miss Bina Addy; Drawing Room Recital". Otago Daily Times. June 20, 1936. p. 22. Retrieved November 24, 2019 – via Papers Past.
  12. "Miss Bini Addy, A Bengalese Singer". Auckland Star. May 18, 1936. p. 11. Retrieved November 25, 2019 – via NewspaperArchive.com.
  13. "Indian Singer Aids our Centenary". Adelaide News. May 2, 1936. p. 1. Retrieved November 25, 2019 – via NewspaperArchive.com.
  14. "From India; Mezzo-Contralto to Broadcast". The Sydney Morning Herald. January 21, 1937. p. 20. Retrieved November 24, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. "Bina Addy to Assist Y. W. C. A. Fund". The Advertiser. May 5, 1937. p. 11. Retrieved November 24, 2019 – via Trove.
  16. "Recital of Indian Songs". The Courier-Mail. February 12, 1937. p. 15. Retrieved November 24, 2019 – via Trove.
    This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.