DWIJEN MUKHERJEE
Akademi Award: Rabindrasangeet

Born in 1927 in Calcutta, Shri Dwijen Mukherjee received his training in music from eminent singers of Bengal including Shri Sushanto Lahiri, Pankaj Mullick, Santidev Ghosh, Santosh Sengupta, Anadi Ghosh Dastidar and Niharbindu Sen. He was introduced to the folk music of Bengal, and Hindi film music, by
the eminent film-music composer Salil Chowdhury. It is as a front-ranking singer of Rabindrasangeet — the songs of Tagore — that Shri Dwijen Mukherjee has been primarily known to the public.

Shri Dwijen Mukherjee is today the foremost exponent of Rabindrasangeet, with a career in music that goes back to the 1940s. Gifted with a resonant voice, he has applied himself to interpreting Rabindranath's songs with single-minded devotion, drawing listeners to this music within and outside Bengal. The
slower, sonorous compositions of philosophic content have been his forte.

Shri Mukherjee has also been a leading singer in the Bengali adhunik genre, and has a place in popular music by virtue of his songs in films. His renderings of Rabindrasangeet in cinema have also been a popular success. Besides Bengali, he has sung songs in a few Hindi films.

For his outstanding work in Rabindrasangeet and modern Bengali music, Shri Dwijen Mukherjee has been honoured with national and international awards. These include the Indira Gandhi Award (1991), the Rajiv Gandhi Award (1992), the Mother Teresa Millennium Award (2006), the S.D. Burman Award (2007),
the Banga Bandhu Award of the Government of Bangladesh (2010), and the Padma Bhushan (2011).

Shri Dwijen Mukherjee receives the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for his contribution to Rabindrasangeet.