Ravi Shankar

Ravi Shankar

• Pandit Ravi Shankar (7 April 1920 – 11 December 2012) is an Indian musician and composer best known for his success in popularizing the sitar.
• He was born in Varanasi, India and spent his youth touring Europe and India with the dance group of his brother Uday Shankar.
• He worked for All India Radio, New Delhi as music director from 1949 to 1956.
• He began to tour India and the United States, winning three Grammy Awards and collaborating with many notable American musicians, including George Harrison and Philip Glass.
• He served as a Rajya Sabha MP from 1986 to 1992.
• He is the recipient of Padma Bhushan (1967), Padma Vibhushan (1981), Bharat Ratna (1999), Ramon Magsaysay Award (1992), lifetime achievement Grammy (2012; posthumous).
• He died in California on December 11, 2012, at age 92.
• www.ravishankar.org