The maestro is credited with making Sitar famous all over the world with his scintillating performances. The Indian Government awarded the Sitar maestro with the Bharat Ratna for his immense contribution towards the Indian classical music.
Life of Ravi Shankar
At age 18 Shankar gave up dancing, and studied the sitar under the great musician Ustad Allauddin Khan. He also served as music director of All-India Radio from 1948 until 1956, he began a series of European and American tours.
Shankar became the world’s best-known exponent of Hindustani (North Indian) classical music. He composed the film scores for the Indian director Satyajit Ray’s famous Apu trilogy (1955–59). In 1962 he founded the Kinnara School of Music in Bombay (now Mumbai) and then established a second Kinnara School in Los Angeles in 1967.
He even collaborated with the famous band named ‘The Beatles’, popularizing Sitar to a greater extent. Honored with three highest Indian civilian awards. Two months after his death, Shankar won a fourth Grammy Award, for an intimate collection of ragas titled The Living Room Sessions Part 1.
He was also honoured with the Recording Academy’s lifetime achievement award. Along with it he wrote two autobiographies, published 30 years apart: My Life, My Music (1969) and Raga Mala (1999).
He passed away in California on December 2012, at the age of 92.
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