Pt. Ravi Shankar

Ravi Shankar the sitar maestro was born on April 7, 1920 into a Bengali Brahmin family. Son of an eminent barrister, he moved to Paris at the age of 10. His elder brother Uday Shankar was a renowned dancer of that time. Ravi Shankar started playing sitar for his brother's troupe. In 1938 he started his formal training in sitar under his guru Allauddin Khan. After his training he went on to become the music director of All India Radio in the 1950s.

He performed in Soviet Union in 1953 and then he went to the west in 1956. His performances at the major events such as the Edinburg Festival and Royal Festival Hall resulted in his popularity even outside India and he came became known worldwide. Ravi Shankar has written town concertos and gave three memorable concerts - Monterey Pop Festival, concert for Bangladesh and the Woodstock Festival.

He has been associated with the composition of films and ballets in India, Canada, Europe and the United States. He was nominated for an Academy award for his composition of movie Gandhi. He has also given music for Philip Glass's Passages and Orion.

This legendary sitar player received many awards and honors from all over the world including fourteen doctorates and Disikottam. He has also been honored with the Magsaysay award, Padma Vibhushan two Grammy's, the Fukuoka Grand Prize from japan and the Crystal award from Davos, with the title of 'Global Ambassador'.

This musical ambassador of India is an honorary member of the United Nations Academy of Arts and Letters and is also a member of the American International Rostrum of composers.
Mallika Sarabhai Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia Bismillah Khan Zakir Hussain Amrita Shergill Ustad Amjad Ali Khan Bhimsen Joshi Sunil Dutt Shyam Benegal M.F. Hussain Dadasaheb Phalke