Shanno Khurana

Shanno Khurana
Born	1927 (age 89–90) Jodhpur, Rajasthan
Genres	Hindustani classical
Occupation(s)	singer, composer
Years active	(1940s –present)

Shanno Khurana (born 1927) is a noted Indian classical vocalist and composer, from the Rampur-Sahaswan gharana of Hindustani classical music. A disciple of the doyen of the gharana, Ustad Mushtaq Hussain Khan (d. 1964), she is known for performing rare bandish and raag, though her singing style includes genres like khayal, tarana, thumri, dadra, tappa, to chaiti and bhajan. Born and brought up in Jodhpur, she started singing on All India Radio in 1945 in Lahore, later shifted to Delhi, where she continued her singing on All India Radio, Delhi and in concerts and music festivals. She also pursued music education, finally earning her M. Phil. and PhD in music from the Kairagarh University, and has undertakes extensive research on folk music of Rajasthan.

She was awarded the Padma Shri in 1991, followed by the Padma Bhushan in 2006, the third highest civilian honour given by Government of India. In 2002, she was conferred the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship, the highest honour in the performing arts conferred by the Sangeet Natak Akademi, India's National Academy for Music, Dance and Drama.

Khurana was born and brought up in a Punjabi family in Jodhpur, Rajasthan. Her family was mostly non-musicians, consisting of doctors, engineers, and people working in foreign services. But her interest in music grew in her early years, when she saw her brother learning from musicologist and vocalist Pandit Raghunath Rao Musalgaonkar, a disciple and nephew of Raja Bhaiya Poonchwale of Gwalior gharana. Her conservative family didn't allow girls to learn music, but when her father saw her listening intently to classical music on radio, he allowed her to start her musical training at age 12 under Musalgaonkar.

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