They fondly call her the nightingale of Vile Parle, but that’s just the beginning of her musical sojourn. Deepali’s mellifluous notes reach across 12 countries including the USA, UAE and Singapore and Australia. Swardeep Music Academy, her beloved music academy is not just a hobby class. It is a thriving community that brings together music lovers across the globe, and genders and has singers aged 4 up to 90 years.
A “Sangeet Visharad”, Deepali Kamat Agrawal started learning music from her grandfather, Late Pandit Ramdas Kamat who was a famous Natya Sangeet singer and has been performing since the age of 4 years. Having worked with famous musicians Louis Banks, Jolly Mukherjee, Kaushal Inamdar, and Nilesh Moharir, Deepali has been a part of several radio and Doordarshan programs. She has also released several independent albums and is a mentor for Vocal Training on one of the famous Marathi learning OTT platforms called ‘Local Bandhan’. She is also the recipient of several prestigious awards like ‘Ojaswini Young Women Achievers Award’ in the cultural field by ABVP, “Best Singer” by Rangoli and “Artist of the Year” by Inspire,-
Truly bestowed by Goddess Saraswati, Deepali not only is a musician par excellence, but she was working in the Finance Sector before foraying into her own to begin Swardeep in 2014. What started as a small dream from her flat in Mumbai, Swardeep has grown by leaps and bounds and is a “happy place’ for more than 1500 students. Her love for teaching and energy is contagious and so evident at the Swardeep annual concerts that take place every January. The concert is painstakingly curated and months of preparation go into it as she single-handedly provides a platform for her students to perform with live musicians in front of a large gathering. Another special feature of these annual concerts is that one can witness three generations – Deepali, her mother and her daughter perform on the same stage.
Looking back fondly at the last 10 years of Swardeep, Deepali reminisces ” I have never spent a single rupee on advertising and I am so grateful that my students have all just gravitated towards Swardeep by word-of-mouth and before I realised, they became an extended family. My students in the US, who take online lessons with me, often meet at each others’ homes for a karaoke evening. It makes me immensely proud that Swardeep has given all these high-flying professionals a way to stay connected to their roots. Some of them even travel to India to perform at the annual concert”
This Women’s Day lets us celebrate Deepali and her noble mission of keeping music alive across generations and geographies while instilling confidence in her students, bringing a sense of purpose and truly spreading joy through rhythm, melody and beats.
