Shobha Joshi is an accomplished and versatile singer with a rare talent and knowledge to perform and express the various forms of Indian music. Deep - rooted in the traditional styles, Shobhaa excels in the exposition, elaboration and interpretation of the intricate patterns of classical music, specially Khayal, semi classical such as Thumri, Dadra, Hori etc, Ghazal, devotional music, light music, folk music and also film music. Besides performing, along with her academic background, she relates to different styles and regions in Indian music to cultural context.
Endowed with mellifluous and rich sonorous voice with tremendous power and range stretching in three octaves, she has developed her own expressive style, which allows her to flow with equal ease from the subtle stylistic variations of classical music to the immense depths of many other, forms of Indian music.
Child Prodigy
Shobha Joshi's musical journey started at the early age of two and a half years, when she started singing songs of Lata and Asha in perfect tune. Her mother Kamal Joshi noticed Shobhaa's naturally beautiful voice and talent. Her mother was her first Guru who started teaching Shobhaa basic classical music and always remained an inspiration and support in Shobhaa's musical journey. At the age of 5, Shobhaa started learning under the tutelage of Pt. Dattatray Agashe ji, a Gwalior gharana exponent from Pune.
Shobha's natural inclination and talent lead her to understand and grasp the intricacies of classical music and her progress was admired by her Guru and music lovers. From her school days Shobhaa started participating in school and local gatherings. Her first classical concert was at the age of fifteen which was highly appreciated by the audience who predicted Shobhaa's future as an outstanding and extraordinary artist. Sardar Abasaheb Mujumdar, a legendary personality of music and arts field, expressed his opinion about Shobhaa as "a child prodigy and noteworthy singer of tomorrow".
Shobha's mother also noticed that Shobhaa can sing classical and light music equally at ease and her voice is perfect for both the styles and put her to light music training along with classical. That is how Shobha got versatile and can handle classical forms and light music genres with ease and perfection.
Shobha remained scholar in music as well as academic career in psychology. Her father insisted that it is very important to have good academic background along with art and this lead Shobhaa to have Masters in both the fields and also work on Ph.D. She is also an awardee for research fellowship from cultural ministry of India.
Singer Par Excellence
After graduating, Shobhaa followed her passion and decided to pursue her career as a singer. Her dedication and continuous music education under various Gurus helped her improving and mastering all the areas of classical and light music.
Shobha has many music awards to her credit and has performed extensively all over India and abroad in the most prestigious venues of the world.
Shobha Joshi is one of those few singers who falls in versatile category who can sing classical, semi classical, Bhavgeet, devotional and film music. Shobhaa has around 2500 concerts to her credit through performances all over India and abroad. She has made around 80 albums in different categories of music and in different languages. She has sung for more than 250 films which include Hindi, Marathi, Rajasthani, Bhojpuri and more.