The first and only female professional Tabla player in the world, Anuradha Pal has been internationally acclaimed as an accomplished soloist and a versatile and sought after accompanist.
A disciple of the World-renowned Tabla maestro's, Late Ustad Alla Rakha and Ustad Zakir Hussain, Anuradha has performed extensively in India, USA, UK, Europe, Australia, Japan and the far- east with top ranking musicians like Pt. Jasraj, Pt. Shivkumar Sharma, Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia, Imrat Khan, Vishwamohan Bhatt, Shahid Parvez, Sultan Khan, Smt Veena Sahasrabuddhe amongst others. She has performed in prestigious festivals like WOMAD, Rhythm Sticks, Bath International Music Festival, Music Wizards of India, Tokyo Music Festival, Phoenix Music festival amongst several others all over the world.
An irrepressible creativity, tremendous clarity and a fine tonal quality along with exciting rhythmic improvisations and spontaneity are the hallmarks of her style. An unremitting devotion to practice and learning have given Anuradha a meaningful identity amongst the musicians of today helping her to carve a distinct niche of her own. The prestigious Encyclopedia Britannica, the Asian-American Who's who journal as well as the Limca Book of Records have lauded Anuradha for her contribution to music as well as for her well balanced musicianship.
Anuradha has been widely hailed as a child prodigy who started performing at the age of ten and half years first as a Tabla soloist and then as an accompanist. She first learnt vocal classical music with Tabla as an adjunct to get a firm foundation in raga and tala principles, before her exuberant passion made way for a successful profession.
The Films Division of India made a documentary film titled 'Aaj ki Nari' and featured Anuradha along with a galaxy of great women achievers in 1999. The renowned USA based Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) made a film titled ' Adventure Divas' featuring Anuradha Pal as one of the great women achievers of India and the World. This film was telecast in USA in September 2001.
Anuradha was featured in the BBC Radio World Service Program as one of the 'Five Prominent Women Musicians of India' in 1991. She has been widely featured on ITV, Asia TV (USA), BBC world service television and radio (UK), Australian and Japanese TV- Radio channels and Indian channels like Star TV, Zee, Alpha, ETC, ETV, Doordarshan and Radio amongst others around the world. Anuradha is on the prestigious panel of artists on the Indian Council of Cultural relations. She represented India in the 'Asian Performers Summit' in February 1999 where she spoke on Performers rights amidst an august gathering of International Musicians in Japan.
In 1996, Anuradha formed India's only all female percussion based instrumental and vocal fusion group called ' Stree Shakti'. Stree Shakti has performed extensively in India and the UK in the WOMAD Festival, Rhythm Sticks festival, BBC Music Live Festival, Asian Music Festival, amongst others enthralling audiences not only by their amazing prowess in male dominated fields of Indian Percussion but also for their well evolved interesting Hindustani-Carnatic combination. (North and South Indian music) Their album also titled ' Stree Shakti ' became one of the best selling classical albums in 2001.
An A grade artist of the All India Radio, a recipient of many prestigious awards, Anuradha has several cassettes and CDs both as a Tabla soloist and accompanist released both in India and abroad. An added dimension is her amazing foray into music direction and composition both in the medium of films as well as commercial music albums like ' Shanti - in search of peace. ' (Spiritual essence of India) and ' Stree Shakti.' She composed the background score completely on Tabla in the acclaimed film " Gaja Gamini" by M. F Husain which was highly appreciated both in International film festivals and by audiences around the globe.
Anuradha did an extensive concert tour of UK in July 2002 where she presented 'Stree Shakti' in the World Premier in the ' Commonwealth Games festival City of London festival at the Barbican Centre (London), Cardiff Jazz Festival amongst other concerts in Reading & Manchester. Here she also collaborated and composed several pieces with the Pan African Orchestra in a unique fusion titled ' India & Africa in Conversation' which was a great success.
