Sitar master and composer Anoushka Shankar is set to perform on Wednesday, April 13 at Royce Hall at UCLA in Los Angeles, California. Anoushka will appear with supporting musicians Manu Delago, the Austrian percussionist and frequent collaborator of Björk, on Hang drum; Tom Farmer on acoustic bass and keyboards/piano. Multi-instrumentalist Sanjeev Shankar, who plays the shehnai (double reed oboe) along with live electronics, completes the lineup.
Profoundly rooted in the Indian Classical music tradition, Anoushka studied exclusively from the age of nine under her father and guru, the late Ravi Shankar, and made her professional debut as a classical sitarist at the age of thirteen. By the age of 20, she had made three classical recordings for EMI/Angel and received her first Grammy nomination, thus becoming the first Indian female and youngest-ever nominee in the World Music category. In 2005, Anoushka released her self-produced breakthrough album Rise.
In 2011 Anoushka signed to Deutsche Grammophon, releasing Traveller (produced by Spanish musician Javier Limon). This was followed by Traces of You (produced by Nitin Sawhney and featuring Anoushka’s half-sister Norah Jones on vocals), and Home, a purely Indian Classical album where she returned to the Ragas her father had taught her.
Her new album Land of Gold, Shankar’s response to the humanitarian trauma of displaced people fleeing conflict and poverty, will be released in the US on Deutsche Grammophon on April 1st.
General tickets are available at cap.ucla.edu, all Ticketmaster outlets, by phone at 310.825.2101 or in person at the UCLA Central Ticket Office on campus.
Author: World Music Central News Room
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I can’t tell you how much I love sitar music. The idea of an artist like Anoushka coming to perform live is something that makes me so excited I don’t know what to say. Thanks for spreading information about this! I’m going to pass it on to everyone I know.