Pandit Ravi Shankar

The sitar maestro was born on 7 April 1920 in Varanasi, UP, India. In his early years he joined his elder brother, Uday Shankar and his troupe and went to Paris in 1930 to experiment with the stage by playing small roles in ballets for the next three years. Pandit Ravi Shankar was trained in sitar under Ustad Allauddin Khan of Maihar for six years (1938-44), a court musician and a disciple of Swami Haridas of the Tansen Gharana.

Pandit Ravi Shankar joined the IPTA and composed music for several ballets, started Renaissance artistes in 1947 and was in charge of Vadya Vrinda at the All India Radio in 1949. He took part in UNESCO Music Festival in Paris and performed with Yehudi Menuhin and David Ostrach in 1958. In 1967 he started the Kinnara school in Los Angeles and was made the head of the Indian Music section in California Institute of Arts in 1970. He is a fellow member of the Sahitya Natak Akademi and his publications include Music Memory, My Music, My Life, Rag Anurag (Bengali) and Ravi which was an autobiography in 1995.

Pandit Ravi Shankar has been awarded the degree of Doctorate of Fine Arts by the Regents of University of California in the year 1968, has been honoured by the Doctoratres of Music University, Khairagarh and Rabindra Bharati University in 1973, Deshikoltama by Vishwa Bharati University and is also the recipient of the Padma Vibhushan.

Pandit Ravi Shankar founded the Research Institute for Music and Performing Arts in Varanasi in 1976. He is also a member of the International Music Council and has been nominated as a member of the Indian parliament.