From Firstpost:
Sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar, who is credited with popularising Indian classical music far beyond its borders, has passed away in a San Diego hospital at the age of 92.
The sitar maestro had been admitted at the Scripps Memorial Hospital in San Diego on 6 December due to complaints of diffculty in breathing and he passed away on Tuesday evening, the Hindu reports.
While he stormed Western culture with his collaboration with the Beatles, Shankar is perhaps the best known Indian classical musician beyond its shores.
A musician as much at ease with his own genre of music as with others, Shankar’s collaborations with legends in other genres of music and his own contributions to Indian classical music are perhaps unparalleled.
His long association with George Harrison of the Beatles led to his performances in legendary concerts like Woodstock and Concert for Bangladesh.
Apart from concerts, Shankar can composed memorable scores for films like Richard Attenborough’s Gandhi and Satyajit Ray’s Apu Trilogy.
In a decorated career spanning ten decades, Shankar has received numerous acknowledgements for his contributions to the world of music including the Bharat Ratna, Padma Vibhushan, the Music Council UNESCO award 1975, the Magsaysay Award from Manila. He has also won two Grammy’s in the past and is even nominated for this year’s awards.
• Ravi Shankar: http://www.ravishankar.org
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