In April 2018, City College of NY Libraries presented the ‘Concert for Ravi Shankar’ to celebrate the recent completion of a collaborative digitization project working with the Ravi Shankar Foundation. As part of the project, 75 reel-to-reel tape recordings of Shankar’s historic CCNY lectures have been digitized, and will be made accessible to library patrons. An article on the CCNY Libraries blog includes some highlights from the Shankar collection, including audio clips.
Take a journey into the realm of Ravi Shankar’s music with his senior disciples Gaurav Mazumdar (sitar), Barry Phillips (cello), Ashwini Shankar (shehnai), and Arup Chattopadhyay (tabla). Grammy nominated Mazumdar has collaborated with composers including Philip Glass and performed at the Vatican. Grammy winner Phillips has toured worldwide with The Anoushka Shankar Project, performing at venues such as the Hollywood Bowl, The Royal Albert Hall-London, and Sydney Opera House. Born into a family of renowned shehnai musicians, Shankar began playing at a young age and has entertained audiences across the globe. Currently a teacher and visiting lecturer, Chattopadhyay has played at Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, and…
The award-winning The Beatles Story™ in Liverpool is celebrating 50 years since The Beatles travelled to Rishikesh, India with the launch of a new special exhibition. Opening in February 2018, ‘Beatles in India’ will look at this key and relatively secretive part of the Beatles’ story with never-before-seen memorabilia, imagery and personal accounts from the people who were there with the band in 1968. A sitar used by Ravi Shankar will go onto display within the new immersive area, loaned to The Beatles Story by the Ravi Shankar Foundation. As George Harrison’s mentor, Ravi’s influence on the Beatle ultimately helped to popularise the use of Indian instruments…
Congratulations to Bickram Ghosh for being a 2017 Global Music Award Silver Medal winner in Outstanding Achievement for composition and listener impact with regard to his EMWMusic release MAYA. Established in 2011, the Global Music Awards is a well-known international music competition which celebrates independent musicians. Global Music Awards is widely recognized by industry insiders as a source for highly talented artists. ‘Global Music Awards is recognized as music’s golden seal of approval.’
In times when vice is treated as virtue, music can be a guide while navigating the rush of current events. To that end, on July 14th, 2017, EMWMusic will release Nine Decades Vol. 5 – Ravi Shankar’s Ghanashyam: A Broken Branch. Originally commissioned as a music theater piece by the Birmingham Touring Opera Company and premiering in 1989, Ghanashyam explores the endless creation and destruction that can surround the artist in turbulent times. Created out of his deep concern over the youth culture’s preoccupation with drugs as an “easy escape from the sadhana found in disciplined hard work,” Ravi Shankar wrote this outstanding piece to illuminate…
On April 3rd, 2017 Anoushka Shankar will perform her HOME album live in San Diego, California as part of the Indian Fine Arts Academy’s yearly celebration of Ravi Shankar’s birthday. The concert will take place at the David and Dorothea Garfield Theater at the Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center. Help honor the memory of the Sitar Maestro and celebrate the legacy of his music that lives on in Anoushka’s talent. Tickets available here.
On May 20th, 2017 to mark the London premiere of Ravi Shankar’s opera “Sukanya” on the 19th, the Southbank Centre will feature a full afternoon celebrating the legendary artist Ravi Shankar and the mesmerizing instrument, the sitar. The Sitarathon begins with a personal perspective – a special keynote talk as Ravi Shankar’s widow, Sukanya Shankar, appears in conversation with Oliver Craske, Ravi Shankar’s official biographer, reflecting on the musician’s legacy, life and work. Celebrations continue from 3:30pm with a mass public sitar workshop and performance, bringing together all ages and abilities for a collaborative session, showcasing what the sitar is capable of. Bring your own sitar…
Ravi Shankar’s long-awaited last musical theater work, “Sukanya: The Opera,” is set to premiere in Leicester, UK on May 12th, 2017. Myth, music and dance meet in this extravagant show, depicting a love story taken from the Sanskrit texts of the Mahabharata. After a terrible mistake leaves the ancient sage Chyavana blinded, the beautiful princess Sukanya finds herself marrying for the sake of her kingdom. A full description of the hard work put into making this production a reality can be found here. Performances will also be held at the Lowry (Salford), Symphony Hall (Birmingham), and Royal Festival Hall (Southbank Centre). Tickets available here.
Imagine, if you will, a 46-year-old Ravi Shankar meeting at 29-year-old Philip Glass in Paris, 1966. Ravi was there recording his score to Conrad Rooks’ surreal, non linear, autobiographical film Chappaqua. Glass was there on a Fulbright scholarship studying under Nadia Boulanger. Hired to transpose the Indian Classical compositions into Western Notation for the Chappaqua sessions, the two met. At the time, both men had a strong sense of who they were and where they wanted their music to go. Ravi wanted to bring the treasures of Indian Classical to the world through his massive dedication to touring and performance; he also wanted to explore how Western…
As we recognize December 11th as the date Ravi Shankar passed away in 2012, and face what seems like an uncertain future for all efforts with humanitarian ethics at their core, we at East Meets West Music pledge to continue to spread the message of peace and virtuosic work of the Maestro. Writing from India, Sukanya Shankar shares her thoughts here: It is four years since my beloved Raviji left his physical abode. I am getting used to his invisible presence in my life. I feel him and hear him constantly, there, in all my activities in one way or another. A few days ago I had gone to a dinner gathering where…