Ravi Shankar Tickets Ravi Shankar (born April 7, 1920 in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India) is a Bengali-Indian musician best known for his virtuosity on the sitar. A disciple of Allauddin Khan, Ravi Shankar is arguably the best-known Indian instrumentalist. Ravi Shankar is well-known for his pioneering work in bringing the power and appeal of the Indian classical music tradition, as well as Indian music and its performers in general, to the West. This was done through his association with The Beatles as well as with his own personal charisma. His musical career spans over six decades and he currently holds the Guinness Record for the longest international career. Ravi Shankar Tickets available now! ShowTime Ticket Services specializes in tickets for all tour venues. Ravi Shankar Tickets continued. Loading...

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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.