Ravi Shankar Information Continued
Ravi Shankar gave up a possible dance career, and starting in 1938 he spent long
years of dedicated study under his guru Allaudin Khan. His first public performances in India
came in 1939. Formal training ended in 1944 and he worked out of Bombay. He began writing
scores for film and ballet and started a recording career with HMV's Indian affiliate. He became
music director of All India Radio in the 1950s. Ravi Shankar then became well known to
the music world outside India, first performing in the Soviet Union in 1954 and then the West in
1956. He performed in major events such as the Edinburgh Festival as well as major venues
such as Royal Festival Hall.
George Harrison, a member of The Beatles, began experimenting with the sitar in 1965. The
two eventually met due to this common interest and became close friends, and that in turn
expanded Ravi Shankar's fame as a pop star and as Harrison's mentor. This
development greatly expanded his career. He was invited to play venues that were unusual for a
classical musician, such as the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival in Monterey, California, with Ustad
Alla Rakha on tabla. He was also one of the artists who performed at the Woodstock Festival in
1969 and The Concert for Bangladesh in 1971. Ravi Shankar & Friends was also the opening act
for Harrison's 1974 tour of the United States.
Ravi Shankar has written two concertos for sitar and orchestra, violin-sitar
compositions for Yehudi Menuhin and himself, music for flute virtuoso Jean Pierre Rampal and
music for Hozan Yamamoto, master of the shakuhachi (Japanese flute). He has composed
extensively for films and ballets in India, Canada, Europe and the United States, including
Chappaqua, Charly, Gandhi and the Apu Trilogy. His recording Tana Mana, released on
the Private Music label in 1987, penetrated the New Age genre with its unique combination of
traditional instruments with electronics. The classical composer Philip Glass acknowledges
Ravi Shankar as a major influence, and the two collaborated to produce
Passages, a recording of compositions in which each reworks themes composed by the
other. Ravi Shankar also composed the sitar part in Glass's 2004 composition
Orion.
Ravi Shankar comes from a musically gifted family with his famous children including
recording artist Norah Jones
and sitar player Anoushka
Shankar. He is also the uncle of the late sitarist Ananda Shankar.
