Anoushka Shankar: Redefining the Sitar for a Global Generation

Anoushka Shankar stands as one of the most influential and innovative voices in contemporary Indian classical and world music. Over the course of her career, she has carved out a space that bridges heritage and experimentation, earning global recognition along the way. With multiple Grammy Award nominations and honours ranging from the British House of Commons Shield to a Songlines Best Artist Award, Shankar occupies a rare position: a deeply rooted classical artist whose work resonates far beyond its traditional boundaries.

Her musical foundation was laid early. Born into the household of the legendary sitar virtuoso Ravi Shankar, Anoushka began training under her father’s guidance at the age of nine. By thirteen, she was performing publicly as a classical sitarist. Barely seven years later, she had already released three classical albums on EMI/Angel and received her first Grammy nomination, becoming the youngest musician and the first Indian woman to be recognised in the World Music category. Her second nomination followed with the release of Rise, the 2005 album she produced herself, which also made her the first Indian artist invited to perform live at the Grammy Awards.

Her reputation as a formidable soloist has taken her to some of the world’s most iconic stages. Audiences have seen her perform at Carnegie Hall, the Barbican Centre, the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Sydney Opera House, the Royal Festival Hall, the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, the Chicago Millennium Park and numerous international festivals including Glastonbury, WOMAD, Edinburgh and the BBC Proms. She is also one of the foremost interpreters of Ravi Shankar’s sitar concertos, having played them with distinguished orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the London Symphony Orchestra, often under celebrated conductors like Zubin Mehta.

Alongside her classical career, Shankar has developed a wide-ranging body of compositional work that reflects her curiosity and her ease in cross-cultural collaboration. Her partnerships include musical explorations with artists as varied as Sting, Karsh Kale, M.I.A., Herbie Hancock, Pepe Habichuela, Joshua Bell and Rodrigo y Gabriela, each collaboration revealing yet another dimension of the sitar’s expressive potential.

In 2011, she signed with Deutsche Grammophon and entered a fertile period of artistic experimentation. Traveller, her first release on the label, examined the historical and emotional relationship between Indian classical music and flamenco. Traces of You, produced by Nitin Sawhney and featuring her half-sister Norah Jones, blended intimate, contemplative songwriting with sitar-led arrangements. She then returned to a purely classical palette with Home, an album dedicated to the ragas and lessons she absorbed during years of study with her father. Her 2016 work, Land of Gold, took a markedly different direction, responding to the global refugee crisis with a soundscape shaped by urgency, empathy and political awareness. In 2019, Reflections compiled highlights from two decades of recordings, marking a milestone in her evolving artistic journey.

Her compositions have been celebrated internationally, most notably at the Dortmund Konzerthaus where she was given creative freedom to curate four full-length programmes spanning the many facets of her musical life. She has also been commissioned for major cultural projects, including a complete score for the British Film Institute’s restoration of the 1928 silent film Shiraz. More recently, she curated a festival at London’s Globe Theatre dedicated to the works of Rabindranath Tagore, and contributed as a soloist and co-writer to Arijit Singh’s latest feature film soundtrack. Her sitar can also be heard on the score of Stephen Frears’ film Victoria and Abdul.

The 2018–19 season brought further expansion: a large-scale tour of the Netherlands with the Metropole Orkest, performances of the Shiraz score at both the Royal Festival Hall and the Dublin National Concert Hall, and a new imagining of Ravi Shankar and Philip Glass’ iconic album Passages at the Philharmonie de Paris. She continues to tour globally, presenting programmes that blend traditional ragas with contemporary ideas, reinforcing the versatility of the sitar in today’s musical landscape.

Beyond music, Shankar has become an outspoken advocate for women’s rights and social justice. After the 2011 Delhi gang-rape case that shocked the nation, she publicly supported the One Billion Rising campaign and revealed her own experience of childhood sexual abuse, a moment that helped expand public awareness around violence against women. Her activism has since included speaking on dedicated panels, hosting a radio programme aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and coordinating an open letter signed by more than a hundred British cultural figures urging government action on the European refugee crisis. She also narrated Stolen Innocence, a documentary on human trafficking.

Shankar is equally active as a writer. She authored a heartfelt biographical tribute to her father, Bapi: The Love of My Life, and has contributed regularly to publications such as First City magazine and the Hindustan Times.

Across her work as a performer, composer, collaborator and activist, Anoushka Shankar continues to expand not only the reach of the sitar but also the emotional and cultural landscapes it can inhabit. Her journey remains one of constant evolution, grounded in tradition yet boldly attuned to the world around her.