Anoushka Shankar

Sitar player and composer Anoushka Shankar is one of the leading figures in World Music today. She is deeply rooted in Indian classical music, having studied exclusively with her father, the legendary Ravi Shankar, from the age of nine. Thriving as a composer, she has been exploring fertile ground in the crossover between Indian music and a variety of genres including flamenco, electronica, jazz and Western classical music. Among her various accolades she has been twice-nominated for a Grammy Award and is the youngest and first female recipient of a House of Commons Shield from the British House of Parliament in 1999. Anoushka Shankar began performing at the age of thirteen and by the age of fifteen she had already performed at the iconic Carnegie Hall. Before turning twenty, she made three classical Indian sitar records for Angel/EMI under the guidance of her father, and established herself as one of the foremost classical sitarists on the world’s stage. Now, in 2011 Anoushka has signed to the prestigious classical music label Deutsche Grammophon Records, and has released her sixth album, Traveller, to critical aclaim. Traveller is an exciting exploration of two musical traditions: Spanish flamenco and Indian classical music. This is the third in a series of explorative albums from Anoushka, following 2005’s hugely-successful, self-produced “Rise” and 2007’s “Breathing Under Water,” a unique collaborative venture between Anoushka and multi-instrumentalist and composer Karsh Kale. Over the years Anoushka has maintained active, creative careers outside of music: in 2002 she authored the book Bapi: The Love of My Life, a biographical portrait of her father, and has served as columnist for prestigious publications like New Delhi’s First City magazine and the Hindustan Times. She earned a Best Supporting Actress nomination from India's National Film Awards for her role in Dance Like a Man in 2004. Today, from her home in London, where she lives with her husband and son, Anoushka’s career reflects her aim to constantly stretch herself creatively. As multi-award winning musician Nitin Sawhney wrote in the sleeve-notes of Traveller, “no one embodies the spirit of innovation and experimentation more evidently than Anoushka Shankar.