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Sitar prodigy Anoushka Shankar will perform in concert with two virtuoso tabla players 8 p.m. today at Lafayette’s Williams Center for the Arts.
Taking up the legacy of her teacher and father, the legendary sitar composer and player Ravi Shankar, Anoushka Shankar is accompanied by Bikram Ghosh and Tanmoy Bose, who toured for many years with her father.
Anoushka Shankar has been playing and studying with her father since she was nine, working first on a “baby” sitar built especially for her. At age 13, she made her performing debut in New Delhi, India. That same year, she 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 former Beatle George Harrison on the 1997 Angel release, Chants of India. In 1998, her first solo recording, Anoushka, was released to tremendous critical acclaim. Her second album, Anourag, was released in summer 2000. Her most recent recording, Live at Carnegie Hall, was released in spring 2001. She also assisted her father on his Grammy Award-winning album Full Circle: Carnegie Hall 2000.
In recognition of her artistry and musicianship, the British Parliament presented Shankar with a House of Commons Shield in 1998. She is the youngest as well as the sole female recipient of this high honor.
Shankar now spends much of the year giving solo performances in Europe, America, and Asia. She also continues touring the world with her father’s ensemble in India, Europe, Asia, and the United States. Shankar 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 March 1997. In July 1999, Anoushka premiered a new work for sitar and cello — written by Ravi Shankar — with cellist Mstislav Rostropovich at the Evian Festival.
Highlights of recent seasons include a performance at a fundraising concert, organized by Trudie Styler to benefit the Tibet Foundation Peace Garden, in London on June 4, 2000. Anoushka Shankar also performed at the World Economic Forum in January 2002. This event was organized by Quincy Jones and Phil Ramone, and was held for the first time in New York City. At the performance she premiered a new piece composed by her father titled “Mood Circle.” Just months later, she took part in the Rainforest Foundation Benefit Concert at Carnegie Hall, organized by Sting and Trudie Styler. The evening’s program was dedicated in part to the late George Harrison, with Shankar performing a short piece composed by her father in his memory. In February 2000, Shankar became the first woman ever to perform at The Ramakrishna Centre in Calcutta, and in January 2001 she made her conducting debut at Siri Fort Auditorium in New Delhi with a 22-member orchestra performing a new and intricate composition of her father’s titled “Kalyan.”
Hailing from Calcutta, Bikram Ghosh had his main training of tabla from his illustrious father, Shankar Ghosh, and later from the great tabla guru, Jnan Prakash Ghosh. He also was trained in the South Indian Carnatic style of drumming by the mridangist, S. Sekhar. He has accompanied all the stalwarts of vocal and instrumental music. He has a number of CDs to his credit as an accompanist as well as a soloist. Since 1995, Ravi Shankar has taken him as his accompanist in some of the major concerts in India, Europe, the U.S.A. and the Far East. Bikram has recorded several CDs, including a tabla solo. He has also been a lecturer in the Rabindra Bharati (Calcutta) and the Vishwa Bharati (Shantiniketan) Universities.
Born to a family of music connoisseurs, Tanmoy Bose was exposed to the subtle nuances of music and rhythm since childhood. Though he received vocal training from Shri Maharaj Banarjee and learned harmonium from the late Montu Banarjee, the charm of the rhythm attracted Bose to the tabla.
A disciple of the late Kanai Dutta and Pandit Shankar Ghosh, Bose has developed a balanced technique which does not restrain itself to any one particular Gharana or school. Tanmoy has carved a niche for himself among the younger generation of top-ranking musicians of the country. A sought-after tabla player both as a soloist and an accompanist, he has participated in numerous prestigious musical events in India and abroad, winning accolades wherever he performed.
The nationally recognized Performance Series attracts more than 10,000 people each season. It has been cited for performing excellence by the National Endowment for the Arts, National Dance Project, Chamber Music America, Lila Wallace Reader’s Digest Fund, Pennsylvania Arts and Humanities Councils, and Association of Performing Arts Presenters.
The 2002-03 Performance Series at Lafayette is supported in part by gifts from Friends of the Williams Center for the Arts; by the F.M. Kirby Foundation; by provisions of the Alan and Wendy Pesky Artist-in-Residence Program, the James Bradley Fund, and the Ed Brunswick Jazz Fund; and by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, Pennsylvania Performing Arts on Tour, and New England Foundation for the Arts.