Biography
Ravi Shankar
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Overview
Born
April 7, 1920 · Benares, Benares State, British India [now Uttar Pradesh, India]
Died
December 11, 2012 · La Jolla, San Diego, California, USA (respiratory failure)
Birth name
Robindra Shankar Chowdhury
Mini Bio
Ravi Shankar was a world-renowned musician, composer, performer, and
scholar of classical Indian music. He was one of the leading cultural
figures of the twentieth century whose accomplishments placed him as the
leading figure of an important musical tradition. His long and
distinguished musical career included numerous recordings, performances
at all the world's leading venues, and a series of unprecedented
collaborations with other leading musicians. Although he is well known
because of his interaction with the popular music world, it is
important to underscore that Shankar is considered the leading
international figure in a very elevated art form, Hindustani music.
Shankar was born on April 7, 1920, in Varanasi, India. He moved to
Paris in 1930, and received most of his education there. From the age
of 12, he performed as a musician and dancer on tour in Europe and
America with his brother Uday Shankar, and in 1939 had his first
concert as soloist at a music conference in Allahabad. By 1945
Shankar's reputation as the leading performer of traditional Hindustani
music on the sitar had coalesced. He began to branch out as a composer,
writing music for ballet and for important films such as such as Dharti
Ke Lal and Neecha Nagar. He also composed the song Sare Jahan Se Accha,
which is one of the most widely known piece of music in India. In 1949, Shankar became Music Director of
All-India Radio at Delhi, and founded the Vadya Vrinda Chamber
Orchestra. During the years 1950-55 Shankar composed some of his most famous music, most notably in the internationally-acclaimed
film studios of Calcutta, where he scored The Ray Triology. For his
outstanding contribution to Indian music and culture, he received his
first of five Presidential Awards in 1962, India's highest honor in the
arts. In the mid-1960s, his preeminence as one of the world's leading
serious musicians was augmented with wide popular success. George
Harrison of The Beatles developed a deep, abiding interest in Hindustani
music, and began to study with Shankar. One influence of this study can
be heard in his song Within You, Without You. Shankar died in San Diego, California in 2012 at the age of 92.
- IMDb Mini Biography By: <UCSD bio>
Family
Spouses
Sukanya Ranjan(1988 - December 11, 2012) (his death, 1 child)
Roshanara "Annapurna" Khan(1941 - 1961) (divorced, 1 child)
Children
Norah Jones
Relatives
Uday Shankar(Sibling)
Trivia
Taught George Harrison of the Beatles how to play the sitar, an instrument on which he is considered a maestro. This included a tour of India during the Beatles' sabbatical in the 1966 where Shankar's tutoring had to eventually to be continued in the rural areas of the country to avoid the crowds that occurred when it was discovered that the rock star was visiting.
Appreciated the increased attention his music received in the
psychedelic era (particularly through his association with
George Harrison), but found the frequent drug use of his
listeners distasteful; Shankar would sometimes cut performances short,
or actually stop the music and admonish the audience if wafting smoke
or noises interfered with the musicians' playing. In time, his
audiences cleaned up, which pleased Shankar greatly.
Approached George Harrison in the summer of 1971 with news about the civil war in Bangladesh (then part of Pakistan), and asked Harrison's help in promoting a benefit concert to aid war refugees who had fled to India; Shankar had hoped to raise $10,000. The resulting The Concert for Bangladesh (1972) raised more than a hundred times that amount, but most of the money was held in escrow, due to an IRS tax investigation, until nearly a decade later.
Began his performing career as a dancer, and was taught his sitar
exercises by his teacher's singing them; the teacher could not play the
instrument.
Had a relationship with dancer Kamala Shastri from the late '40s until 1981 when he left her to be with Sue Jones, the mother of his daughter Norah Jones.
9 more
Quotes
[to enthusiastic fans who mistakenly applauded during the preliminary warmup] If you like our tuning so much, I hope you will enjoy the playing even more.
