Ravi Shankar

For other people named Ravi Shankar, see Ravi Shankar (disambiguation).

Pandit
Ravi Shankar
Shankar performing in 1969
Born
Ravindra Shankar Chowdhury

(1920-04-07)7 April 1920
Benares, Benares State, British India
Died11 December 2012(2012-12-11) (aged 92)
San Diego, California, U.S.
Occupations
  • Musician
  • composer
Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha
In office
12 May 1986 – 11 May 1992
Musical career
GenresIndian classical music
Instrument
Years active1930–2012
Labels
Websiteravishankar.org

Ravi Shankar (Bengali pronunciation: [ˈrobi ˈʃɔŋkor]; born Robindro Shaunkor Chowdhury,[2] sometimes spelled as Rabindra Shankar Chowdhury;[3] 7 April 1920 – 11 December 2012) was an Indian sitarist and composer. A sitar virtuoso, he became the world's best-known expert of North Indian classical music in the second half of the 20th century,[4] and influenced many musicians in India and throughout the world. Shankar was awarded India's highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna, in 1999. He is also the father of American singer Norah Jones.

Shankar was born to a Bengali family[5][6] in India,[7] and spent his youth as a dancer touring India and Europe with the dance group of his brother Uday Shankar. At age 18, he gave up dancing to pursue a career in music, studying the sitar for seven years under court musician Allauddin Khan. After finishing his studies in 1944, Shankar worked as a composer, creating the music for the Apu Trilogy by Satyajit Ray, and was music director of All India Radio, New Delhi, from 1949 to 1956. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Score for scoring the blockbuster Gandhi (1982).

In 1956, Shankar began to tour Europe and the Americas playing Indian classical music and increased its popularity there in the 1960s through teaching, performance, and his association with violinist Yehudi Menuhin and Beatles guitarist George Harrison. His influence on Harrison helped popularize the use of Indian instruments in Western pop music in the latter half of the 1960s. Shankar engaged Western music by writing compositions for sitar and orchestra and toured the world in the 1970s and 1980s. From 1986 to 1992, he served as a nominated member of Rajya Sabha, the upper chamber of the Parliament of India. He continued to perform until the end of his life. He was a recipient of numerous prestigious musical accolades, including a Polar Music Prize and four Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year for The Concert for Bangladesh in 1973.

  1. ^ "East Meets West Music & Ravi Shankar Foundation". East Meets West Music, Inc. Ravi Shankar Foundation. 2010. Archived from the original on 20 November 2012. Retrieved 12 December 2012.
  2. ^ Lavezzoli, Peter (2006). The Dawn of Indian Music in the West. A&C Black. p. 48. ISBN 978-0-8264-1815-9.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Lavezzolip48 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ "Ravi Shankar". Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved 30 July 2021.
  5. ^ The 100 Most Influential Musicians of All Time. Britannica Educational Publishing. October 2009. p. 224. ISBN 978-1-61530-056-3. Archived from the original on 11 October 2020. Retrieved 1 October 2009.
  6. ^ Vasudev Vasanthi (2008). Harmony 4. Pearson Education India. p. 121. ISBN 9788131725139. Archived from the original on 11 October 2020. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
  7. ^ "Pandit Ravi Shankar". Cultural India. Archived from the original on 10 April 2015. Retrieved 15 May 2015.