Ravi Shankar Biography

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The majority of prominent and influential sitar musicians are of Indian and Middle Eastern heritage. This is understandable, given that sitar music is a distinct feature of these locations. One of the most famous sitar players in India is Ravi Shankar. He was an Indian composer and musician who is most known for popularizing the sitar. Shankar studied music as a child and toured with his brother's dancing company. He began touring India and the United States after serving as director of All-India Radio, performing with several prominent musicians such as George Harrison and Philip Glass. Shankar passed away in California in 2012, at the age of 92.

In this biography, you will get to know who is Pandit Ravi Shankar, Pandit Ravi Shankar instrument, performance and concert of Ravi Shankar.

Early Years

Ravi Shankar was born in Varanasi, India's holiest city, in 1920 to an Indian middle-class family. Shankar, the youngest of four sons, began his career as a dancer. At the age of ten, he moved to Paris with his elder brother, Uday, as part of an Indian dance ensemble. Performances in other European locations followed, providing a firm foundation for young Shankar's mastery of Western music and dance traditions. Despite his popularity as a dancer, he was drawn to the hypnotic sounds of Indian classical music and the sitar, and by his mid-twenties, he was doing public recitals on the instrument. He also began writing music for Indian films, ballets, orchestras, and chamber ensembles.

Shankar began performing in the United States in the mid-1950s, thanks in part to his friendship with violin virtuoso Yehudi Menuhin, whom he met in 1952 and with whom he became longtime friends and partners. Three Ragas, his first record to gain international recognition, was released in 1956. Shankar expanded his performance tour schedule to include appearances in Europe, Asia, and the United States as knowledge of his enormous skill spread. In 1961, a critically lauded concert at Carnegie Hall in New York was essential in promoting both Shankar and Indian music in the United States. Three years later, Shankar met John Coltrane, the great jazz musician. The two performers intended to record together, but because of the unexpected death of John Coltrane in 1967, the project was never completed. Shankar established other significant contacts in the mid-1960s, such as when he met composer Philip Glass, who was engaged by Conrad Rooks to translate music into western notation while scoring Chappaqua. Eventually, the two guys worked together on a number of projects.

Association with George Harrison

George Harrison, a member of the legendary Beatles, met Ravi Shankar in London in June 1966. Harrison became friends with him and began taking Sitar lessons from him. Shankar's and Indian music's appeal in the West skyrocketed as a result of the collaboration. The Beatles' adoption of the Sitar by Harrison spawned a new musical genre known as raga rock. Later, he began working as a producer for Ravi Shankar. Harrison calls him "The Godfather of World Music". Shankar, who is 23 years Harrison's senior, described their bonds like that of a father and son.

Ravi Shankar Instrument

Pandit Ravi Shankar's instrument name is the sitar. One of India's most well-known instruments is the sitar. Ravi Shankar, a Central Asian musician, was the first to bring it to American audiences in the 1960s. The sitar is a stringed instrument that requires a lot of practice to master. The sitar, which belongs to the lute family, usually has around 17 strings. A total of five or six strings are considered melody strings. One or two of the strings are drone strings, which provide rhythm. The rest are “auxiliary” or “sympathetic” strings, which are used to generate specific tonal effects.

Ravi Shankar instrument used was Sitar, as shown below:

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The performing artist holds the sitar at a 45-degree angle and plucks the strings using finger picks. Tabla (drum) and tanpura (a type of flute) musicians frequently accompany Indian sitar artists. They compose music that is both mesmerising and deeply emotional.

During the 1950s, when Ravi Shankar was producing film music in Bombay and Calcutta while also serving as the programme director for All Indian Radio, he invented a new notation system for the sitar. Instead of the conventional Indian syllables sa, ri, ga, ma, pa, dha, ni, sa, Shankar utilised letters from the Latin alphabet (S, R, G, M, P, D, N, S).  He also devised specific indicators for plucked instruments' right-hand strokes.

Personal Life 

In 1941, Ravi Shankar married Annapurna Devi. Shubhendra Shankar, their son was born the next year. Ravi Shankar had an affair with a dancer named Kamala Shastri in the late 1940s, which proved deadly to his marriage, which ended in divorce. Afterwards, he married Sukanya Rajan. Anoushka Shankar, his daughter, was born in 1981 as a result of this union.

Concert for Bangladesh

Bangladesh became a flashpoint for military conflict between Indian and Muslim Pakistani forces in 1971. Along with the challenges of violence, the country was flooded to the point of devastation. Shankar and Harrison staged the Concert for Bangladesh in response to the country's starvation and poverty. On August 1, it was held at Madison Square Garden and featured Bob Dylan and Eric Clapton among the performers. The show's proceeds went to UNICEF to support Bangladeshi refugees, and it is widely regarded as the first significant modern charity concert. Additionally, the performing artists' recordings were nominated for a Grammy Award in the category of album of the year in 1973.

Mainstream Success

Ravi Shankar performed a session in the Soviet Union in 1954. He first performed in the United States and Western Europe in 1956. His popularity was boosted by the score he composed for Satyajit Ray, a well-known Indian film director. Shankar, who was already an advocate for Indian music in the West, accepted this role to a far greater extent in the 1960s. Shankar's appearance at the Monterey Pop Festival in that decade cemented his reputation.

Awards and Honors

• He received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award from India's National Academy of Music, Dance, and Drama in 1962.

• Fellowship of the Sangeet Natak Akademi - This is the highest accolade bestowed by the same institution. In 1975, he received this honour.

• Ravi Shankar received India's third-highest civilian award, the Padma Bhushan, in 1967.

• Padma Vibhushan - In 1981, he was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, India's second-highest civilian award.

• The Sitar maestro received the country's highest civilian accolade, the Bharat Ratna, in 1999.

• Grammy Award –Ravi Shankar was the recipient of five Grammy Awards throughout his lifetime. In 1967, his collaborative album with Yehudi Menuhin was nominated for a Grammy for Best Chamber Music Performance. In 1973, the record 'Concert for Bangladesh' was named Album of the Year. His album "Full Circle: Carnegie Hall 2000" won the Grammy Award for Best World Music Album in 2002, and his album "The Living Room Sessions" won it again in 2013.

• At the 55th Annual Grammy Awards, he was presented with the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award.

Ravi Shankar was an Indian composer and musician who popularised sitar and Indian classical music in the West. Shankar affectionately referred to as the "godfather of world music," is recognised for infusing Indian culture into the world's ever-evolving music scene, and for establishing a great following for Eastern music in the West.

Information About Ravi Shankar - Performance

A Ravi Shankar concert provided an opportunity to witness a maestro at work while simultaneously indulging in a quasi-spiritual experience through music. Many concertgoers in the United States were unfamiliar with the delicate nuances of playing the sitar and how it interacted with the other instruments onstage at Shankar performances. Hearing the music, on the other hand, meant embarking on a trip with both the listeners and the performers, with the goal of bringing everyone to the same higher state of consciousness.

Shankar played the sitar cross-legged, with the bottom gourd of the instrument resting in his lap at a 45-degree angle. Shankar would connect with the rhythms made by the tabla players and other instrumentalists on stage as his fingers went easily up and down the long neck of the sitar, plucking its many strings. The end effect was a celebration of Indian music that dazzled newcomers while elevating seasoned fans.

About Ravi Shankar - Death and Legacy

Shankar died in San Diego, California, on December 11, 2012. Ravi Shankar’s age was 92 years. Throughout 2012, the musician was said to have suffered from upper respiratory and heart problems, and in the days leading up to his death, he had surgery to replace a heart valve. Shankar is survived by two daughters, Anoushka Shankar, a sitar performer, and Norah Jones, a Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter.

Do you know?

‘Saare Jahan Se Acha was recomposed by Ravi Shankar.

Ravi Shankar composed the music for the song "Saare Jahan Se Acha." It was written by Muhammad Iqbal in 1904, and until Shankar was asked to reset it in 1945, it had a more drawn-out melody. Many people are ignorant of this, including HMV, which describes the song as "traditional" in an album of Lata Mangeshkar's patriotic songs.