Anoushka Shankar (born 9 June 1981) is an Indian
sitar player and
composer who lives between the United States, the United Kingdom, and India. She is the daughter of Indian sitar player
Ravi Shankar and Sukanya Shankar. Through her father, she is the half-sister of
Norah Jones.
Personal life and education
Shankar was born in London and divided her childhood between London and Delhi. As a teenager, she lived in
Encinitas, California and attended
San Dieguito Academy. A 1999 Honors graduate, Shankar decided to pursue a career in music rather than attend college.
Anoushka married British director
Joe Wright.
Career
Shankar began training on the sitar with her father as a child, and gave her first public performance at the age of thirteen at
Siri Fort in
New Delhi. By the age of fourteen, she was accompanying her father at concerts around the world, and signed her first record contract, with
Angel Records (
EMI) at 16.
She released her first album,
Anoushka, in 1998 followed by
Anourag in 2000. Both Shankar and Norah Jones were nominated for
Grammy awards in 2003 when Anoushka became the youngest-ever and first woman nominee in the World Music category for her third-album,
Live at Carnegie Hall.
2005 brought the release of Anoushka’s fourth album
RISE,...
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