Coomi Nariman Wadia

Coomi Nariman Wadia is a choral conductor and the chairperson of the Paranjoti Academy Chorus in Mumbai, and is described as India’s first woman conductor of choral music. She was named for the Padma Shri in 2023 in the field of art, from Maharashtra ^[1].

Art school and the piano

Wadia was born on 6 August 1933 ^[2]. She earned a diploma in commercial art from the Sir J. J. School of Art in Mumbai while also training as a pianist, and won awards for her associate and licentiate piano diplomas from Trinity College of Music, London ^[2].

Taking up the baton

The Paranjoti Academy Chorus, founded by Victor Paranjoti, became the first Indian choir to tour Europe, in 1961 ^[2]. Wadia had joined it as a teenage soprano and soon became something like an assistant to its founder ^[2]. When he died in 1967, she took over as conductor and music director, a role she has held for more than five decades ^[2].

Under her the choir has sung across India and in Europe, the United States, the Middle East, Japan, the Philippines and South Korea ^[2]. She commissioned new choral works from Indian composers, including four pieces by Vanraj Bhatia, and many Indian singers and instrumentalists made their debuts in concerts she conducted ^[2].

On world stages

In 1972 she represented India at the opening of the Kennedy Center in Washington ^[2]. Her choir won first prize at an international choral festival in Poland in 1974 and second prize at Tolosa in Spain in 1977 ^[2]. It sang Ravi Shankar’s music at his invitation in 1991, and in 2009 and 2011 performed Christmas music at Rashtrapati Bhavan ^[2].