Ananda Shankar

"I have had a dream to try to combine Western and Indian music into a new form, a music which has no particular name but is melodious and touching, and which combines the most modern electronic devices with the old traditional instrument, the sitar" - Ananda Shankar, 1970. ------------------------------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------------I was born in 1942 into a musical family. My father was the famous Indian dancer and choreographer Uday Shankar who brought his dance troupe to the West in the 1930s. My mother Amala was also a great dancer and my uncle is the world-renowned sitarist Ravi Shankar.I spent five years in intensive sitar study under Dr. Lalmani Mishra of Benares Hindu University. I then travelled to Los Angeles where I hooked up with many great musicians including Jimi Hendrix. I made a record there which became a psychedelic cult classic.I then returned to India in the early 1970s and set up my own orchestra to create and perform a new musical synthesis of Eastern and Western music, combining traditional instruments with electronic synthesizers.I have received many awards including a National Award for the score for the Mrinal Sen film "Chorus". My orchestra also incorporated a dance troupe which was choreographed by my wife Tanusree.Unfortunately, I moved on to another place in 1999. ------------------------------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------