Legendary classical singer and Padma Vibhushan recipient Prabha Atre died on Saturday after a cardiac arrest, PTI reported. She was 92 years old.
The news agency quoted an unidentified source as saying that Atre suffered a cardiac arrest in her sleep at her home in Pune. She was reportedly taken to the city’s Dinanath Mangeshkar Hospital, where she was declared dead at 5.30 am.
Atre, born on September 13, 1932, was a science and law graduate, and later earned a doctorate in music. She was one of the oldest and most renowned practitioners of the Kirana gharana, or musical lineage.
In a career that spanned seven decades, Atre received widespread acclaim for her mastery over several musical genres such as khayal, thumri and dadra. She also created new ragas – or melodic frameworks – such as Apoorva Kalyan, Darbari Kauns and Patdeep Malhar.
Atre also wrote several books on music such as Swararangee, Along the Path of Music and Swarmayi.
The classical singer received the Padma Shri in 1990, Padma Bhushan in 2002 and Padma Vibhushan – the country’s second-highest civilian award – in 2022.
This was the second death of a renowned Indian classical musician in the past week. On January 9, classical singer and Padma Bhushan recipient Rashid Khan died in Kolkata.
Also read: For seven decades, Prabha Atre has been questioning her stellar musical legacy while upholding it
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