Ravi Shankar | Artist

Robindro Shaunkor Chowdhury aka Ravi Shankar, was a Bengali Indian musician and a composer of Hindustani classical music born 1920 in Varanasi, India. He was the world's best-known sitar master in the second half of the 20th century and influenced many other musicians throughout the world. Shankar was awarded India's highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna in 1999. After finishing his studies in 1944, Shankar worked as a composer and was music director of All India Radio from 1949-56. Shankar began to tour Europe and the Americas playing Indian classical music and increased its popularity in the 1960s through teaching, performance, and his association with violinist Yehudi Menuhin and Beatles guitarist George Harrison. Shankar made hundreds of recordings of classical Indian ragas, as well as cross-cultural collaborations with artists such as The Beatles, Philip Glass, André Previn and the London Symphony Orchestra, and his daughter, Anoushka Shankar. Among his many recorded masterpieces, some standouts include India's Master Musician (1958), Portrait of a Genius (1964), West Meets East (1966), In New York (1967) and Concerto for Sitar and Orchestra (1971).

Artist Website: ravishankar.org

Featured Albums: Ravi Shankar

Related Artists: George Harrison, The Beatles, Philip Glass, Norah Jones, Anoushka Shankar, Ali Akbar Khan