Ravi Shankar

RAVI SHANKAR d2012. Indian musician and composer who plays the plucked string instrument Sitar. He has been described as the most well known contemporary Indian musician by Hans Neuhoff . He was born Varansi and spent his youth touring Europe and India with the dance group of his brother. He gave up dancing in 1938 to study The Sitar. In 1956, he began to tour Europe and America playing Indian classical music and increased its popularity there in the 1960s through teaching, performance and his association with violinist Yehudi Menuhin and George Harrison of The Beatles. Shankar engaged Western music by writing concerti for sitar and orchestra and toured the world in the 1970s and 1980s. From 1986 to 1992 he served as a nominated member of the upper chamber of the Parliament Of India. He was awarded India's highest civilian honor, the Bharat Rhatna in 1999 and received three Grammy Awards. He performed into the 2000s, often with his daughter. He died aged 92 in 2012