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Anoushka Shankar

For Anoushka Shankar, there is legacy and then there is destiny. She is equally respectful of both, but bound to neither. Her ever-growing audience cannot help but acknowledge the familial roots of the young woman coaxing spellbinding spiritual sounds from her sitar, but neither can they deny that she is an innovator in her own right. Her name may have brought her to the stage for the first time as a young girl, but it is her talent and vision that have kept her there.

Schooled in the Indian classical music tradition by the greatest teacher any student could hope to have, maestro and father Ravi Shankar, Anoushka had already dazzled thousands with her accomplished musicianship by the time she had reached her teens. "The younger Shankar revealed herself to be a remarkably promising sitarist," said Time Out New York magazine of the 16-year-old Anoushka in 1997, while a few years later Dubai's Gulf News Panorama noted, "She has accomplished far more than many musicians would do in a lifetime."

Anoushka made her recording debut at 13, appearing on the album In Celebration, a tribute to the works of Ravi Shankar. Two years later she made her debut as a conductor on her father's Chants Of India album produced by close family friend, George Harrison.

Anoushka, her 1998 solo debut, established the younger Shankar as something of a prodigy. That same year, the British Parliament awarded Anoushka with a House of Commons Shield, making her both the youngest and the first female recipient of that high honor.

Anourag (2000), Anoushka's sophomore release, expanded upon and refined what she had offered on the debut, and 2001's Live at Carnegie Hall truly brought Anoushka into the international spotlight, garnering her first Grammy nomination and making her the youngest person ever nominated in the World Music category. Although she did not release any new recordings under her own name for the next four years, Anoushka was by no means idle. In 2002, at the historic Concert for George, a tribute to the late George Harrison in London, she conducted a new composition of her father's, "Arpan," which featured a guitar solo by Eric Clapton. Anoushka also performed Harrison's "The Inner Light" that evening.

That same year saw the release of Anoushka's book Bapi: The Love of my Life, an intimate biographical portrait of her father's exceptional journey, as well as a BBC-produced telecast documentary Anoushka Shankar: Sitar Trek, a 30-minute glimpse of life on the road with the emerging queen of the sitar.

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31
Interview

Anoushka Shankar: Music Makes the World a Better Place

Read "Anoushka Shankar: Music Makes the World a Better Place" reviewed by Nenad Georgievski


Esoteric, eclectic and prolific, the Indian sitarist and composer Anoushka Shankar has mapped out an intriguing artistic path by delivering intriguing music that has veered between the modern and the traditional. Her ambitious, progressive and multicultural musical world view has been growing exponentially from a record to record and has taken her on a path of creating music without borders. For the past 20 years, she has been crossing border after border and culture with culture, and most of the ...

10
Album Review

Anoushka Shankar: Reflections

Read "Reflections" reviewed by Nenad Georgievski


Over twenty years, Anoushka Shankar has grown into one of the world's leading sitarists. She has long been omnivorous in her musical tastes and this has resulted in a journey without borders. A daughter and student of the late Ravi Shankar, who almost single handedly introduced Indian music to Western musicians and audiences, she has nonetheless pursued her own muse, one which has been as adventurous and multi-faceted as that of her father. Some of her achievements are compiled in ...

89
Interview

Anoushka Shankar: A Celebration of Joy

Read "Anoushka Shankar: A Celebration of Joy" reviewed by Lloyd N. Peterson Jr.


Anoushka Shankar is one of the rare artists whose attitude and creativity reflects her love, respect and appreciation for all people and cultures in the world today. This is contrary to traditional teachings and beliefs, which have historically taught patriotism for one's country and culture specifically. But Anoushka Shankar is not your typical contemporary artist. Certainly growing up in the presence of Yehudi Menuhin, George Harrison and her father, Ravi Shankar--three of our greatest humanitarian artists--didn't hurt. But Shankar is ...

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Live Review

Anoushka Shankar: New York City, NY, April 6, 2012

Read "Anoushka Shankar: New York City, NY, April 6, 2012" reviewed by Ernest Barteldes


Anoushka ShankarCity Winery New York, NY April 6, 2012Touring in support of Traveller (Deutsche Grammophon, 2012), Indian-born sitarist Anoushka Shankar kicked off the show at the Manhattan venue with a traditional raga backed by Sanjeev Shankar (shehnai) and Pirashanna Thevarajah (mridangam, ghatam, kanjira, moorsing ). The trio was then joined by Melón Jimenez (flamenco guitar), Sandra Carrasco (vocals) and Bernhard Schimpelsberger (cajon, Spanish percussion) for the material from Traveller, an experiment in bringing together Indian ...

311
Album Review

Anoushka Shankar and Karsh Kale: Breathing Under Water

Read "Breathing Under Water" reviewed by Chris M. Slawecki


Anoushka Shankar learned the Indian classical music tradition from perhaps its best teacher--her father, Ravi Shankar. She made her recording debut on In Celebration (Angel Records, 1995), George Harrison's four-CD retrospective tribute to her father, and her debut as a solo artist with Anoushka (Angel, 1998). Anoushka's first album of original material, Rise (Angel, 2005), was nominated for the Best Contemporary World Music Grammy Award. On Breathing Under Water, she merges her sitar, piano and keyboards with ...

384
Album Review

Anoushka Shankar / Karsh Kale: Breathing Under Water

Read "Breathing Under Water" reviewed by Bhasker Gupta


The Shankar family has always been credited for bringing Indian music to the forefront of Western audiences. Although it was Pt. Ravi Shankar who brought sitar to the limelight of western avant-garde instrumentalists, the most experimental fusion work remains of that of the lesser known Ananda Shankar. Following along the same lines, and after two years of delivering Rise (Angel Records, 2005), Anoushka Shankar has collaborated with Karsh Kale for this masterful album, elegantly fusing Indian classical sitars with electronic ...

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146

Performance / Tour

Anoushka Shankar to Release New CD on September 27, Announces Fall Tour Dates

Anoushka Shankar to Release New CD on September 27, Announces Fall Tour Dates

Source: All About Jazz

SITARIST & COMPOSER ANOUSHKA SHANKAR TO RELEASE NEW CD, RISE, ON SEPT. 27; ANOUSHKA'S FIRST STUDIO RECORDING IN 5 YEARS, & FIRST RELEASE SINCE 2001's GRAMMY-NOMINATED CD LIVE AT CARNEGIE HALL

ANOUSHKA TO PERFORM BACK-TO-BACK NYC CONCERTS, OCT. 27 AT JOE'S PUB & OCT. 28 AT CARNEGIE HALL; FURTHER TOUR DATES IN 2005 TO INCLUDE HOUSTON, DALLAS, AUSTIN, BOSTON, BALTIMORE, WASHINGTON DC & CHICAGO

Anoushka's Other Recent Projects Include: • Guest Appearance On MIDIval Punditz CD MIDIval Times ...

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Recording

Angel Records Announces the September 27th Release of Anoushka Shankar's 'Rise'

Angel Records Announces the September 27th Release of Anoushka Shankar's 'Rise'

Source: All About Jazz

Anoushka Shankar's fourth album for Angel Records, Rise, marks a defining moment in the career of the Grammy-nominated sitarist. Having previously recorded strictly in the classical Indian tradition of her father, the legendary Ravi Shankar, Anoushka truly emerges here as a potent creative force, not only performing on sitar, but also exhibiting her own unique voice as a composer, arranger & producer, as she collaborates with a select crew of virtuoso Eastern and Western musicians wielding a variety of both ...

"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 - 1997

"Ms. Shankar, sounding utterly different from her father, improvised against tablas, using aggressive geometric ideas, ramming home her improvisations; the crowd cheered her loudly, and Mr. Shankar, beaming, was as proud as Ms. Coltrane had been of her son." --The New York Times - June 16, 1998

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Reflections

Deutsche Grammophon
2019

buy

Traces Of You

Unknown label
2013

buy

Breathing Under Water

Manhattan Records
2007

buy

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