Ravi Shankar, the sitar virtuoso and composer is India’s most recognized musician. He had recently visited Montreal and Ottawa, Canada along with his student and daughter Anoushka Shankar. Needless to say both venues were sold out. I consider myself lucky that I got to see both of them perform. What fascinated me the most is at age 87 years, he has so much stamina and hasn’t lost his touch. He played even some of the most difficult ragas with fluid ease and without missing a beat. He had the audience clapping thunderously after each of his compositions. He single handedly brought Indian classical music to the west and undoubtedly is regarded as the ambassador of Indian classical music.
The number of awards he has received are too many to list but to name few…he has received fourteen doctorates, Magassay Award from Manila, Padma Vibhusan, he was nominated to Rajya Sabha, two Grammy Awards and the list goes on.
Perhaps the tributes he has received from his colleagues says it all about his genius as a musician….
“Ravi Shankar has brought me a precious gift and through him I have added a new dimension to my experience of music. To me, his genius and his humanity can only be compared to that of Mozart’s.” -Yehudi Menuhin
“Ravi Shankar is the Godfather of World Music” – George Harrison
Anoushka Shankar
I was mesmerized, spellbound, filled with emotions when I saw Anoushka play. She has clearly emerged from the shadows of her father and we no longer have to say she is Ravi Shankar’s daughter. She has used the knowledge gained from being her fathers student and fused it with her own direct approach and has quickly established her own style of sitar music. There is no question that a new chapter is being written.
If you get a chance listen to her CD “Rise”….its more melodic, not as jarring(excuse me) like her fathers tend to be at times! It was my pleasure meeting her and her father Pandit Ravi Shakar.
Here are some press quotes about Anoushka Shankar
“She performed with exceptional clarity and speed, and showed remarkable facility in an instrument that most players have to practice for decades.” – Washington Post
“Anoushka sent her fingers dancing over the arched frets with admirable ease displaying a subtlety and dignity way beyond her almost impossibly tender 15 years. Certainly she is fortunate to have her father as a teacher, but he too is lucky to have so willing a student. We all benefit from the relationship…….If indeed the torch was being passed to a younger generation, there was none more proud in Carnegie Hall than the father and Guru of 20th Century Indian Music.” – New York Times
“The hall rang with thunderous applause after she had played raga Tilak Shyam, one of her father’s own creation….Judging from Anoushka’s performance, Ravi Shankar has much to be proud of – the family musical tradition seems safe in his daughter’s nimble fingers.” – Daily Telegraph
“Anoushka looks set to be as important a pioneer as her father” – BBC Music Magazine
“Most people are musicians simply because they play a certain instrument; when they play that instrument, the music appears. But Ravi ? to me, he is the music; it just happens to be that he plays the Sitar. And it’s like that with Anoushka. She has that quality???.she is the music.” – George Harrison
Irshad Khan
He emerged as a child prodigy and gave his first sitar music concert at age seven. He performed at Queen Elizabeth Hall in London when he was thirteen. Since then he has performed all over the world and recently was in Ottawa, Canada. He is not only a master of conventional 20 stringed sitar but also of bass sitar called “Surbahar”. In addition to playing sitar, he also gave a vocal performance and gosh! let me tell you, he had all of us hypnotized.
He comes from a very well known Gharana that of Imdakhnai Gharana, which has produced some of the best known sitar musicians of India and the world. He is nephew of great Ustad Vilayat Khan. Irshad’s family of musicians dates back to four hundred years and are recognized for bringing what is sitar music today and are credited with inventing Surbahar, the bass sitar.
In spite of the all the accolades he has received, he is a thorough gentleman and very pleasant person to talk to. If you get a chance listen to his CD “Romancing the sitar”……
Satish Vyas
When we think of santoor, we think of Pandit Shivkumar Sharma but his deciple Satish Vyas is fast becoming a force in Indian Classical Music World. Satish has had quite an unusual entry into the music world even though he comes from a family of musicians. His father pandit C. R. Vyas is a very well known Hindustani music vocalist and as Satish practiced vocal music, he did his B.S in mathematics, then M.S in statistics. He worked as an executive at various well known firms but decided to give it all up and chose to play Santoor and spent several years with Pandit Shivkumar Sharma. He has become a star by his own rights. He has accompanied his Guru in concerts all over the world and now he is performing solo.
It was my pleasure meeting him, listening to his music and I consider him one of the greatest exponents of Santoor music.
Author: Dr. K. B. Mallya