Anoushka Shankar Brings a Night of Indian Music to the Kimmel Center's Planet World Series
October 3, 2006
Anoushka Shankar
Tremendously talented and immersed in the musical tradition of India, Anoushka Shankar will perform in Kimmel Center's Perelman Theater on Saturday, October 28 at 7:30pm. Ms. Shankar is the only artist in the world trained completely by her father - the legendary sitar virtuoso and composer, Ravi Shankar. Since the release of her first solo album in 1998, she has received critical acclaim for her artistry and musicianship of Indian and Western music. In 2001, her third album Live at Carnegie Hall was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best World Music Album category, making her the youngest ever nominee in such a category. She is currently giving solo performances for her most recent and Grammy®-nominated CD, Rise.
This is the second performance in the Planet World Series. The next concert of the series is Värttinä which has been rescheduled to January 18, 2007 at 7:30pm.
Tickets for Anoushka Shankar are $44 and $34 and can be purchased by calling 215-893-1999, online at www.kimmelcenter.org, or at the Kimmel Center box office, open daily from 10am to 6pm and later on performance evenings. (Additional fees may apply). For group sales call 215-893-5883.
A limited number of $10 tickets are available for every Kimmel Center Presents performance at the Kimmel Center. Tickets go on sale the day of the event and can be purchased at the Kimmel Center box office beginning 2.5 hours prior to curtain time and 11:30am for matinees. Limit one ticket per person.
Anoushka Shankar began studying the sitar with her father at the young age of nine and made her performing debut in New Delhi, India three years later. In the fall of 1998 her first solo recording, Anoushka, was released to tremendous critical acclaim. Two albums followed, including Anourag in 2000 and Grammy®-nominated Live at Carnegie Hall in 2001. Ms. Shankar has also played sitar on her father’s Grammy Award-winning album Full Circle: Carnegie Hall 2000, and has appeared as a sitarist on several other CD's, including Sting's Sacred Love.
Through the years, Ms. Shankar has received several honorable distinctions for her artistry and musicianship: She was the first female recipient of the House of Commons Shield in 1998 from The British Parliament; the first woman to perform at The Ramakrishna Centre in Calcutta in February 2000; voted one of four Women of the Year in India in 2003 by The Indian Television Academy, Asmi and India Times; and in 2004, she was chosen as one of twenty Asian Heroes in the Asian edition of TIME magazine.
George Harrison has said of Anoushka Shankar: "Most people are musicians simply because they play a certain instrument; when they play that instrument, the music appears. But Ravi- to me, he is the music; it just happens to be that he plays the Sitar. And it's like that with Anoushka. She has that quality…She is the music (1997)." And The New York Times noted: "…Ms. Shankar, sounding utterly different from her father, improvised against tablas, using aggressive geometric ideas, ramming home her improvisations; the crowd cheered her loudly, and Mr. Shankar, beaming, was as proud as Ms. Coltrane had been of her son (June 16, 1998)."
Anoushka now spends much of the year giving solo performances in Europe, America and Asia, and continues touring the world with her father's ensemble. Anoushka has premiered several works of her father's, including "Nivedan" at the Healing the Divide benefit in New York City in 2003, which was organized by Richard Gere and Philip Glass, and attended by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Anoushka has shared the stage with many of the world’s top celebrities, including Sting, Madonna, Nina Simone, Angelique Kidjo, Herbie Hancock, Elton John, Peter Gabriel and James Taylor, and had the fortune to perform in front of such personalities as Ray Charles and Prince Charles.
After a year's sabbatical in 2004, Anoushka has returned to the concert stage alone and with her father, but has also grown as a composer. She scored the music for a short film titled Ancient Marks, and has recently released her fourth solo album, Rise, which features several of her new compositions.
Kimmel Center Presents also offers more than fifty Free at the Kimmel community performances during the 2006/07 5th Anniversary season. These include Free in the Plaza with local artists performing classical, jazz, pop, country, world, dance and family fun on the Commonwealth Plaza stage, as well as Artist Chats with Kimmel Center Presents performers, education events and Organ Postludes in Verizon Hall. On November 1 at 6pm, the Haddonfield Symphony Chamber Ensemble will precede the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra ticketed performance, and immediately after the concert there will be a free organ postlude performed on the Fred J. Cooper Memorial Organ. On November 5 at 1pm Tribe 1 will perform on the Commonwealth Plaza Stage. Please check online for additional information and a performance schedule.
Kimmel Center Presents' 2006/2007 season is supported by: Mellon Financial Corporation, University of Pennsylvania Health System, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, ARC Wheeler, and The William Penn Foundation. American Airlines is the Official Airline of Kimmel Center Presents. Toyota is the Official Vehicle of Kimmel Center Presents Jazz and World Pop programming. NBC-10 is a Media Partner for Kimmel Center Presents. The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Philadelphia Daily News, and Philly.com are media sponsors for the Great Orchestras on Tour series.
KIMMEL CENTER PRESENTS
Planet World
Saturday, October 28, 2006 | 7:30pm
Perelman Theater
Anoushka Shankar, sitar
Tanmoy Bose, Tabla
Leo Dombecki, Keyboard and Saxophone
Ravichandra Kulur, Flute and Kanjira
Aditya Prakash, Instrumentalist
Clarence Gonsalves, Bass
Jesse Charnow, Percussion
Kenji Ota, Guitar
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FREE AT THE KIMMEL EVENTS
Wednesday, November 1, 2006 | 6pm
Commonwealth Plaza Stage
Haddonfield Symphony Chamber Ensemble, prior to Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra
Wednesday, November 1, 2006 | Post-show
Verizon Hall
Organ postlude, performer tba
Sunday, November 5, 2006 | 6pm
Commonwealth Plaza Stage
Tribe 1, prior to Sweet Honey in the Rock
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