Shankar Ravi 1920 - 2012 (92)
The music I have learned and want to offer is like worship to God. It is absolutely like a prayer.
QUOTES
He was born on April 7, 1920 to a Bengali family in Benares, in the British-occupied India at that time. He spent his younger years touring India and Europe with his older brother dance troupe. In the group was Alauddin Khan, a great sitar player who taught Ravi. When touring stopped due to World War II, Shankar spent 5 years in a remote village in northern India, studying sitar under Khan.
After completing his studies in 1944, Shankar worked as a composer and music director of All India Radio, in New Delhi, from 1949 to 1956. In 1956, he began touring Europe and America playing and promoting Indian music. He became world-famous for his collaboration with accomplished musicians such as violinist Yehudi Menuhin and Beatles guitarist George Harrison. He participated in the iconic Woodstock (1969) and Monterey (1967) rock festivals and wrote compositions for sitar and orchestra, while continuing to tour throughout the 1970s and 1980s, helping to popularize Indian music in the West.
From 1986 to 1992, he served as an appointed member of the Rajya Sabha of the Upper House of the Parliament of India, in 1999 he was awarded India's highest honour, the Bharat Ratna. Ravi Shankar started spending his time between India and America and did not stop composing music and performing on the sitar until 2011, despite his health problems. He died in San Diego, California on December 11, 2012.