Anoushka Shankar

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Anoushka Shankar bigraphy, stories - British musician

Anoushka Shankar : biography

9 June 1981 –

Anoushka Shankar ( ; born 9 June 1981) is an Indian sitar player and composer, and daughter of Ravi Shankar.

Personal life

Shankar lives between the United States, the United Kingdom, and India. She is married to British director Joe Wright and their first child, Zubin Shankar Wright, was born on 22 February 2011.

Early life

Anoushka Shankar was born in London into a Bengali-Tamil Hindu family, and her childhood was divided between London and Delhi. She is a daughter of Indian sitar player Ravi Shankar and Sukanya Shankar. She is also the paternal half-sister of American singer Norah Jones, and Shubhendra "Shubho" Shankar, who died in 1992.

As a teenager, she lived in Encinitas, California and attended San Dieguito Academy. A 1999 honors graduate, Shankar then decided to pursue a career in music rather than attend college.

Discography

Studio albums

  • Anoushka (1998)
  • Anourag (2000)
  • Rise (2005)
  • Rise Remixes (2006)
  • Breathing Under Water (2007)
  • Traveller (2011)

Live and compilations

  • Full Circle: Carnegie Hall 2000 (2000)
  • Live at Carnegie Hall (2001)
  • Concert for George (2003)
  • Healing the Divide: A Concert for Peace and Reconciliation (2007)
  • Live in Concert at the Nehru Park, New Delhi (2005)

Features

  • Variant Moods – Duet For Sitar & Violin (Abridged Version) Written by Ravi Shankar, At Home With Friends by Joshua Bell 2009
  • Charu Keshi Rain – Co-written by Nitin Sawhney and Anoushka Shankar, London Undersound 2008
  • Mandala – Featuring Anoushka Shankar on sitar. Co-written by Hilton Garza, Radio Retaliation
  • Beloved – by Anoushka Shankar remixed by Thievery Corporation – Versions 2006
  • Rebirth – Co-written by Gaurav Raina, Tapan Raj and Anoushka Shankar. MIDIval Times 2005
  • Sacred Love – by Sting 2003
  • 8 classical ragas performed on ShankaRagamala composed by Ravi Shankar 2005
  • Chants Of India – Ravi Shankar; George Harrison, featuring Anoushka as Conductor & Assistant 1997
  • AdariniIn Celebration composed by Ravi Shankar 1995

Career

Anoushka Shankar began training on the sitar with her father as a child, with practice consisting of just a couple of sessions a week at the age of ten. Shankar gave her first public performance at the age of 13 at Siri Fort in New Delhi. By the age of fourteen, she was accompanying her father at concerts around the world, and signed her first record contract, with Angel Records (EMI) at 16.

She released her first album, Anoushka, in 1998, followed by Anourag in 2000. Both Shankar and Norah Jones were nominated for Grammy awards in 2003 when Anoushka became the youngest-ever and first woman nominee in the World Music category for her third album, Live at Carnegie Hall.

2005 brought the release of her fourth album RISE, earning her another Grammy nomination in the Best Contemporary World Music category. In February 2006 she became the first Indian to play at the Grammy Awards.

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 included her paternal half-sister Norah Jones, Sting, and her father, who performed a sitar duet with her.

Shankar has made many guest appearances on recordings by other artists, among them Sting, Lenny Kravitz and Thievery Corporation. Duetting with violinist Joshua Bell, in a sitar-cello duet with Mstislav Rostropovich, and with flautist Jean-Pierre Rampal, playing both sitar and piano. Most recently Shankar has collaborated with Herbie Hancock on his latest record The Imagine Project.

Shankar has given soloist performances of her father’s 1st Concerto for Sitar and Orchestra worldwide. In January 2009 she was the sitar soloist alongside the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra for the series of concerts premièring her father’s 3rd Concerto for Sitar and Orchestra, and in July 2010 she premiered Ravi Shankar’s first symphony for sitar and orchestra with the London Philharmonic Orchestra at London’s Barbican Hall.