Anoushka Shankar

To read a list of Anoushka Shankar’s accomplishments is to read many life stories in one: masterful sitarist; film composer; published author, impassioned activist; the first Indian woman to be nominated for a Grammy Award and with eleven nominations under her belt; one of the first five female composers to have been added to the UK A-level music syllabus and an Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music. Immersed from a young age on the world stage, with over a quarter-century’s performing behind her since her professional debut aged thirteen, she is a singular, genre-defying artist across realms - classical and contemporary, acoustic and electronic. Having released three classical albums by the age of 21, the switch to earthy ambience and deep textures on 2005’s Rise was fuelled by a desire “to create music that more fully represents who I am.” Deep meditations of love and loss on Traces Of You and her most recent Love Letters P.S. nestle against a return to pure ragas on Home; the relationship between Indian classical music and flamenco was explored on Traveller whilst the global refugee crisis informed the rallying cry of Land Of Gold. All of this speaks to a rare breed of artist; one who can balance many lives in one, each one seeming as natural as the next. Anoushka’s tempests of sound present ancient instruments in modern lights, not as exotic set pieces, but as living, breathing, and wildly expressive, full-bodied gifts to this world.