Ravi Shankar: Celebrating A Life In Music

On the eve of the public opening of the GRAMMY Museum’s latest special exhibit, Ravi Shankar: A Life In Music, the Ravi Shankar family will present an evening celebrating India’s most esteemed musician, who is credited for bringing Indian classical music to the West, initiating the Concert for Bangladesh, and influencing generations of Western classical, jazz and pop musicians. The four-time GRAMMY-winning virtuoso was compared to Mozart by the late Yehudi Menuhin and called the “Godfather of World Music” by late Beatles member George Harrison. The evening will feature the screening of a short documentary film, followed by a special performance from a cello-sitar-sarod-tabla quartet comprised of Barry Phillips, Lakshay Mohan Gupta, Aayush Mohan Gupta, and Arup Chattopadhyay. Phillips studied Indian classical music under Shankar and assisted him on several projects, including the piece written for Mstislav Rostropovich and Anoushka Shankar. Sitarist Lakshay Mohan Gupta and sarodist Aayush Mohan Gupta are grand disciples of Shankar’s and considered to be “musical grandchildren.” The quartet’s music will showcase a unique meeting of the East-West sound and illustrate how the legacy of Ravi Shankar is being taken forward. Also in attendance will be Sukanya Shankar, wife of the late Ravi Shankar.