Anoushka Shankar

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Anoushka Shankar

Anoushka Shankar at the Global Rhythm 15th Anniversary Party in 2007
Background information
Born June 9, 1981 (1981-06-09) (age 28)
Origin Mumbai, India
Genres Indian classical
Occupations Sitarist, composer
Instruments Sitar
Years active 1998—present
Labels Angel
Website AnoushkaShankar.com

Anoushka Shankar (Hindi: अनुष्का शंकर), born June 9, 1981) is a sitar player and composer in the United States. She is the daughter of Ravi Shankar, Indian sitar player, and Sukanya Rajan, a bank employee. Through her father, she is the half-sister of Grammy Award winner Norah Jones.[1]

Contents

[edit] Personal life and education

Shankar was born in London and divided her childhood between London and Delhi. As a teenager, she lived in Encinitas, California and attended San Dieguito Academy. A 1999 honors graduate, Shankar decided to pursue a career in music rather than attend college.[1]

[edit] Career

Anoushka and Ravi Shankar in concert, 2005

Shankar began training on the sitar with her father as a child, gave a public performance at the age of thirteen, and signed her first record contract at 16.[1]

She released her first album, Anoushka, in 1998. Later, in February 2000, Shankar became the first woman to perform at The Ramakrishna Centre in Kolkata. Both Shankar and her half-sister, Norah Jones, were nominated for Grammy awards in 2003.[1]

Shankar, in collaboration with Karsh Kale, released Breathing Under Water on 28 August 2007. It is a mix of classical sitar and electronica beats and melodies. Notable guest vocals include her half-sister, Norah Jones, Sting, and Ravi Shankar who performs a sitar duet with his daughter.

In 2009, Anoushka started writing weekly columns for HT City, the lifestyle supplement of Hindustan Times. These columns appear online on social network Desimartini [2]

[edit] Benefit concerts

On 29 November 2002, she performed with her father at the Concert for George held at the Royal Albert Hall in London. It was held in memory of George Harrison and was modeled after Ravi Shankar's benefit concert with Harrison, the 1971 Concert for Bangladesh.

Shankar and Jethro Tull postponed a concert scheduled for 29 November 2008 in Mumbai [3] after the November 2008 Mumbai attacks. They reorganized the performance as A Billion Hands Concert, a benefit performance for victims of the attacks, and held it on 5 December 2008.[4] Shankar commented on this decision stating that: "As a musician, this is how I speak, how I express the anger within me [...] our entire tour has been changed by these events and even though the structure of the concert may remain the same, emotionally perhaps we are saying a lot more." [5]

[edit] Awards

[edit] Activism

Shankar is a supporter of animal rights and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). She and her father appeared in a thirty-second public-service announcement against animal suffering.[6] Shankar is a vegan.[7]

[edit] Discography

[edit] Studio albums

[edit] Lives and compilations

[edit] References

[edit] External links