Rekha Surya

Hindustani light-classical singer Rekha Surya trained under Begum Akhtar and Girija Devi. She is from Lucknow and now lives in New Delhi.

In India, she has performed in Mumbai, New Delhi, Calcutta, Dewas, Ujjain, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Bhopal, Indore, Vadodara, Lucknow, Chandigargh, Gwalior, Bhuj, Gandhidham, Burhanpur and Ludhiana.

Outside India, she has performed in Washington D.C., New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Madison, Chicago, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, New Foundland, Oslo, London U.K., Tajikistan and Singapore.

 She recorded for the Archives of Sangeet Natak Academi in 1994.

She represented India at the Asian Music Festival in Sri Lanka in 1999 and at the International Falak Festival in Tajikistan in 2006.

“Rekha Surya sang to a packed hall. Rekha belongs to the Begum Akhtar tradition, having studied under the Begum and followed that hypnotic inheritance with great gift. Her voice is deep and resonant and her pronunciation has the same savour as the Begum’s – a sense of hopelessness and despair.”

                                                                                                                       -The Indian Express

“Begum Akhtar left the stamp of her genius on Rekha Surya.”

                                                                                                                         - Khushwant Singh

                                                                                                        (Singer and her Song – The Tribune)

“Rekha Surya enthralled! Her audience was spellbound by her Hori, Kajri, Jhoola and Dadra, interspersed with Ghazal. She was sometimes sprightly, sometimes melancholy, always poignant.”

                                                                                                                              -  The Bombay Times

“In today’s world of mediocre and diluted ghazal-singing, what a pleasure it was to hear Begum Akhtar’s youngest student Rekha Surya sing Ghazal in an authentic Thumri style! ”

                                                                                                                          -Deccan Chronicle

“Rekha Surya’s rich voice and passionate music evokes an exotic image of a bygone era.”  

                                                                                                                                 - The Statesman

“Rekha Surya’s special mark is that she treats Ghazal as an allied form of Thumri and presents it alongside Thumri and Dadra, keeping Begum Akhtar’s legacy alive.”                                                                       - The Hindustan Times

“Rekha Surya is a talent to behold. Rarely does one find such confluence of restraint and abandon, discipline and playfulness, nerve-tingling sensuality and a near-sacred dedication to the Indian art of vocal exposition!”

                                                                                                                               -Baltimore Sun                            

“The sensuous becomes the sublime when Rekha Surya sings Sufi poetry in the form of Thumri, Dadra, Ghazal.”

                                                                                                                                     -The Asian Age