Shusmita Anis

Early life

Shusmita Anis started her training in music from the age of five from her aunt, the legendary Nazrul Sangeet singer Firoza Begum. She specializes in Nazrul’s songs and modern Bengali songs, especially songs those are tuned by her uncle and husband of Feroza Begum, the legendary music director and composer of the Indian sub-continent, Kamal Dasgupta.

Shusmita Anis has been performing regularly in state owned national broadcasting corporation, Bangladesh Television (BTV), from an early age. She won the first prize in Nazrul Sangeet in 1976 in the annual national competition on performing arts, Notun Kuri , produced by BTV.

Singing career

Firoza Begum directed the first three music albums of her niece Shusmita Anis. Her first album of modern Bengali songs, ‘A tribute to Kamal Das Gupta’, was released in 1998 by Raga Music, Kolkata, India. In 2006, HMV in Kolkata, India, released her second album of Nazrul Sangeet, ‘Chand Herichey Chand Mukh Tar’. This album is available on iTunes, Amazon, and other online music stores.

Agniveena, a famous record company in Bangladesh, released her third album, ‘Sei Gaan Sei Sur’, in 2007. This is an album of modern Bengali songs. In 2008, Gaanchill Music, a renowned record company in Bangladesh, released her fourth album of original Bengali songs, ‘Ichche Nupur’. Famous lyricist Asif Iqbal wrote for this album, while music composition of two of the songs of the album was done by two famous Bangladeshi singers, Nakib Khan and Kumar Bishwajit.

Her fifth album titled, ‘Shishirer Sporshe Gatha / Sound of Seasons’, was released in August 2015 by New Music Paradigm Company. Shusmita Anis dedicated this Nazrul Sangeet album to her beloved aunt and music Guru, the legendary Nazrul singer, Firoza Begum. The album was released both in Bangladesh and in West Bengal, India. Renowned composer Ibrar Tipu was the music director of this album. The making of the album was supervised by famous table player, Syed Meher Hossain, son of Ustad Zakir Hussain.

Shusmita Anis conceptualized and designed the album cover art by herself. RED Dot Multimedia Ltd. and eMusic made the music videos of many of the songs of the album. With the release of the album, Shusmita Anis begins her musical journey in promoting and popularizing Nazrul Sangeet, while following the legacy of Firoza Begum.

On 9 September 2015, commemorating Firoza Begum's first death anniversary, Shusmita Anis published an online Extended Play (EP) titled, Mémoire Firoza Begum. The EP consists of original renditions of three songs, tuned by Firoza Begum, and also includes the great legend’s annotations on the songs in her own voice. Shusmita Anis continues to publish more online EPs and Singles that encompasses a variety of music genre. Shusmita Anis has performed in numerous solo programs on different TV channels, nationally and internationally. Popular Indian TV channel Tara Music, Bangladeshi TV channels including BTV, Channel i, NTV, and ETV are to name a few. She performs regularly in national Radio Bangladesh and radio stations like Radio Aamar, Radio Today and more. Shusmita Anis has performed in many stage shows internationally across the USA, India, and in Bangladesh.

Education

Shusmita Anis studied graphic design in the USA. Besides, she visited Bangladesh every summer and took music lessons from her aunt Firoza Begum. After graduation, she settled in the USA. In spite of living in aboard, she continued to visit Bangladesh every summer and learned music from Firoza Begum's abundant stock of songs that she had mastered. In the USA, she took jazz lessons at that time. Since then, she is continuing to take lessons in piano.

Shusmita Anis returned in Bangladesh in 2009 to pursue her career in Business Management. Returning in Bangladesh gave her to scope to learn more from her aunt Firoza Begum. In the music sessions with her aunt, she had spent a great deal of time learning the nuances and renderings of Nazrul Sangeet, which were the hallmark of Firoza Begum's singing style. She continued to learn attentively from her aunt during the period of 2009 to 2014 until Firoza Begum became critically ill. The Nazrul legend died in 2014. Her demise has been an unbearable loss to Shusmita Anis.

After returning in Bangladesh, Shusmita Anis has also been taking lessons on light classical music from her uncle, Mohammad Asafuddowlah, an accomplished singer by himself and a widely respected musician, lyricist and composer of music, nationally and internationally. He has composed songs for famous singers like Ghulam Ali, Haimanti Sukla and many others.

Feroza Begum Archive

To commemorate Feroza Begum’s first death anniversary, her life and her works, on 9 September 2015, Shusmita Anis has launched Feroza Begum Archive on her website. Over the years, devoted fans and aficionados around the world have been preserving Nazrul Sangeet legend Feroza Begum’s works, original music records, recording of her speeches and live performances, memorabilia and others, individually. In honor of the great singer, Shusmita Anis has initiated to archive these rare collections, digitally, on her website. In this way, connoisseurs of music will be able to share their similar collections and have access to the online archive, anytime and from anywhere around the world. Through the archive, Shusmita Anis intends to take forward the legacy of Feroza Begum and popularize Nazrul Sangeet, globally. Besides, the Feroza Begum Foundation has been formed on her first death anniversary in 2015 to carry forward her legacy. Feroza Begum Memorial Gold Medal Trust has also been formed at the University of Dhaka, the top university in Bangladesh. The foundation will award gold medal and scholarship to the most deserving student through a nationwide competition to study music at the Department of Music in the same university.

Musicography

Albums

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