Mala Ganguly is a professional touring & recording concert artist, performs regularly throughout North America. She is highly acclaimed within & without the Indian communities for her golden "mellifluous" voice, virtuosity, & spontaneous vocal improvisations. Her remarkable live performances give her audiences an inspired & impassioned experience of the heart & soul of the Classical & Semi-Classical styles of North Indian vocal music. She has been described as the "Darling of Portland", "The Nightingale of California", & the "Melody Queen of Los Angeles". Widely acclaimed for her extraordinary vocal skill, Mala Ganguly is especially appreciated for her sweet timbre, flexibility, spontaneous complex vocal improvisations, and technical virtuosity
Mala Ganguly, was born of a musical family in Kolkata, Bengal, India, and began her first music instruction at the age of 5. Later, she was trained in Classical North Indian vocal by Pundit A. T. Kanan and Professor Amiya Ranjan Banerjee of the Bishnupur Gharana. She learned light music from great vocalists and music directors in Kolkata, such as Himaghna Roy Chaudhury, Sudhin Das Gupta, Satinath Mukherjee, and Hemant Kumar.
Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, the world renowned sarodist, founder, and president of the Ali Akbar College of Music in San Francisco, praised "Mala Ganguly as a highly accomplished vocalist as well as a skilled teacher of Indian music, whose work and artistry has received much appreciation from both the Indian and non-Indian communities." She gives lecture demonstrations at colleges and universities, and performs worldwide.
She works regularly with composers in jingles, voice-overs, films, and fusion music. She composes, performs and tours with several professional Indian dance companies, both North and South. She is one of the most versatile of Indian vocalists, and her vast repertoire includes Light North Indian Classical Ghazals, Thumries, Bhajans, Geets, and Qwwalis (devotional songs of India). She sings in Bengali, Urdoo, Punjabi, Hindi, Oriya, & English. She is the founder, music director, composer-in-residence, and virtuoso vocalist of the Ragamala Music Ensemble, which presented the world premier of her new raga, Malaranjani.
.Contributing to the performing arts on stage, for radio, and television, Mala Ganguly has sung as a playback singer in Indian (Bengali) films under the direction of the late Hemant Kumar. She has sung on All India Radio, KPFK - Los Angeles, and for film voice-overs. She sang for the movie "The Man from Elysian Fields" starring Andy Garcia, the European release of "The Perfect Murder", with Michael Douglas, Walt Disney's European version of the feature film, "Jungle Book"and "Christmas Box", starring Maureen O'Hara and Richard Thomas. Her captivating voice has been heard throughout America in television commercials for Ameritrade, Kenwood, and an award-winning Nike commercial. Sheappeared in Will Smith's 1998 MTV Music Award Winning Best Rap Video, "Gettin' Jiggy Wit It", as a dance performerand as a SAG actress, Mala Gangulyhas appeared in many national commericals.
In 2007 Mala Ganguly was honored to be included in the Ali Akbar College of Music, founded by legendary sarodist, Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, "The First Forty Years 1967-2007" Commemorative Historical Publication.
Mala Ganguly has received many awards, and is a member of several distinguished professional associations. As a Visual Artist, Mala Ganguly holds a B.A. in Art and although her commissioned paintings are the property of private collectors, many of her original paintings, composites, and art work are exhibited regularly.
Produced by multi instrumentalist David Vito Gregoli, the new CD, “Bhajan Beats” is an east/west fusion of Indian vocals/instruments with western beats. It features guest artists singerDonna De Lory (Madonna), Nepalese flautist Manose (Deva Premal), keyboardist/vocalist David Joyce (Natalie Cole), Didjeridu virtuoso Stephen Kent (Steve Roach) & many others...