“In my lifetime, I want to record as many Nazrul songs as possible. Preserving Nazrul songs with accuracy is the only challenge in my life,” says Ferdous Ara in a conversation with daily sun recently.
Whenever we think of Nazrul Sangeet, the name that immediately comes up to our mind is Ferdous Ara. With her gifted voice, she has been enthralling the music-lovers since 1984.
Her contribution to popularising Nazrul songs is yet to be surpassed by any other singer of the country.
Apart from being a Nazrul singer, Ferdous Ara is also a well-known host of patriotic and contemporary songs.
She believes, “A Nazrul singer can sing the songs of any genre with perfection.”
Ferdous Ara has won the hearts of millions with her melodious voice and only a few awards are left to be bagged by her.
Traveling a lot with her treasure trove of Nazrul Sangeet, Ferdous Ara founded Shurshaptak, a classical music school, in 2000 with which she has been spending her time now-a-days.
Asked about her music school, Ferdous Ara shares, “Founding a music school was the last thing I wanted to do. Actually, I had no plan for this. One thing that I can recall is that when I was a student of Nazrul Institute, I could easily detect the flaws of a singer and used to help him/her overcome the problems. May be a teacher in me grew then.”
“I founded Shurshaptak with the aim of promoting classical music and Nazrul songs with accuracy,” she continues.
As for the name of the school, she recalls, “Shurshaptak, the name of the music school, was given by my father, a true devotee of Nazrul song. Shurshaptak means the seven tunes of music, including Sa re ga ma pa dha ni. My father used to tell us, ‘wherever you would wander in the realm of music, you have to come back to these seven tunes.’ ”
“Without any government patronage, Shurshaptak has been able to come along a long way of 12 years with success since its inception. My joys know no bounds when I see my students winning the reality show like Khunde Gaanraj or Close up 1,” says the smiling songster.
Apart from Shurshaptak activities, Ferdous Ara is a teacher at Dramatics Department of the Dhaka University.
However, she somehow manages time to come up with a new album every year.
Asked about her current projects, Ferdous Ara says, “Like every year, my new album featuring 10 Nazrul songs will hit the market soon. We have completed recording of all the songs under the banner of Impress Audio Vision. From this album, the music-lovers will have the taste of a few popular numbers from Nazrul songs including Noyon vora jool and others.”
To conclude her conversation, Ferdous Ara says, “I want to be a perfectionist in whatever I will be doing in the realm of music.”
News Source: The Daily Sun