| Anoushka Shankar has shown herself to be a unique artist with tremendous talent and understanding of the great musical tradition of India. Anoushka is the only artist in the world to be trained completely by her father and legendary sitar virtuoso and composer, Ravi Shankar. She has been playing and studying the sitar with him since she was nine, and at age thirteen she made her performing debut in New Delhi, India. That same year, Anoushka entered the recording studio for the first time to play on her father's recording, In Celebration. Two years later she helped as conductor with her father and dear friend, George Harrison, on the 1997 Angel release, Chants of India. Shortly thereafter she signed an exclusive contract with Angel/EMI Classics. In the Fall of 1998 her first solo recording, Anoushka, was released to tremendous critical acclaim. Two albums followed, Anourag in 2000 and Live at Carnegie Hall in 2001. The latter was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best World Music Album category, making her the youngest ever nominee in that category. She also played sitar on her father's Grammy Award-winning album Full Circle: Carnegie Hall 2000, and has appeared as a sitarist on several other CDs, including Sting's Sacred Love.
Anoushka made her conducting debut at age nineteen in New Delhi, conducting a 22-member orchestra premiering a new composition of her father's titled Kalyan. She later conducted again at the historic Concert for George in November 2002. The new composition of her father's, called Arpan, featured a guitar solo by Eric Clapton and performances by forty-three musicians playing Indian and Western intruments. Before conducting she also played a sitar solo and performed The Inner Light with Jeff Lyne.
Anoushka now spends much of the year giving solo performances in Europe, America and Asia, and continues touring the world with her father's ensemble. Anoushka is also championing her father's Concerto No. 1 for Sitar and Orchestra, which she first performed with Zubin Mehta conducting the London Philharmonic Orchestra in 1997. She has premiered several new works of her father's, including a piece for sitar and cello with legendary cellist Mstislav Rostropovich at the Evian Festival in 1999, Mood Circle at the World Economic Forum in New York in 2002, and Nivedan at the Healing the Divide benefit in New York City in 2003 which was organized by Richard Gere and Philip Glass, and attented by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Anoushka has shared the stage with many of the worlds top celebrities, including Sting, Madonna, Nina Simone, Anjelique Kidjo, Herbie Hancock, Elton John, Peter Gabriel and James Taylor, and had the fortune to perform in front of such personalities as Ray Charles and Prince Charles. Her new recording Rise has been met with critical acclaim and sold out performances around the world.
www.anoushkashankar.com
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