Bharat Ratna Pandit Ravi Shankar

Pandit Ravi Shankar (7 April 1920 – 11 December 2012), born Robindro Shaunkor Chowdhury was an Indian musician and composer who was one of the best-known exponents of the Sitar in the second half of the 20th century as a composer of Hindustani Classical Music.

Shankar was born to a Bengali Brahmin family in Benares, British India, and spent his youth touring India and Europe with the dance group of his brother Uday Shankar. He gave up dancing in 1938 to study sitar playing under court musician Allauddin Khan. After finishing his studies in 1944, Shankar worked as a composer, creating the music for the Apu Trilogy by Satyajit Ray, and was music director of All India Radio, New Delhi, from 1949 to 1956.
In 1956 he began to tour Europe and the Americas playing Indian classical music and increased its popularity there in the 1960s through teaching, performance, and his association with violinist Yehudi Menuhin and Beatles guitarist George Harrison. His influence on the latter helped popularize the use of Indian instruments in pop music throughout the 1960s. Shankar engaged Western music by writing compositions for sitar and orchestra, and toured the world in the 1970s and 1980s. From 1986 to 1992, he served as a nominated member of RajyaSabha, the upper chamber of the Parliament of India. He continued to perform up until the end of his life. In 1999, Shankar was awarded India's highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna.
To read more about him, click here -> https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ravi_Shankar

★ Recognition :
• Indian governmental honours
*.Sangeet Natak Akademi Award(1962)
*.Padma Bhushan(1967)
*.Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship(1975)
*.Padma Vibhushan(1981)
*.Kalidas Samman from the Government of Madhya Pradesh for 1987–88
*.Bharat Ratna(1999)

★ Other governmental and academic honours :
*.Ramon Magsaysay Award(1992)
*.Commander of the Legion of Honour of France (2000)
*.Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire(KBE) by Elizabeth II for "services to music" (2001)
*.Honorary degrees from universities in India and the United States.
*.Honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters
*.Honorary Doctor of Laws from the University of Melbourne, Australia (2010)

★ Arts awards :
*.1964 fellowship from the John D. Rockefeller 3rd Fund
*.Silver Bear Extraordinary Prize of the Jury at the1957 Berlin International Film Festival(for composing the music for the movie Kabuliwala).
*.UNESCO International Music Council(1975)
*.Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize(1991)
*.Praemium Imperiale for music from the Japan Art Association (1997)
*.Polar Music Prize(1998)
*.Five Grammy Awards
*.1967: Best Chamber Music Performance - West Meets East (with Yehudi Menuhin)
*.1973: Album of the Year -The Concert for Bangladesh(with George Harrison)
*.2002: Best World Music Album - Full Circle: Carnegie Hall 2000
*.2013: Best World Music Album - The Living Room Sessions Pt. 1
*.Lifetime Achievement Award received at the 55th Annual Grammy Awards
*.Nominated for an Academy Award
*.Posthumous nomination in the 56th Annual Grammy Awards for his album "The Living Room Sessions Part 2"
*.First recipient of the Tagore Award in recognition of his outstanding contribution to cultural harmony and universal values (2013; posthumous)

★ Other honours and tributes :
*.American jazz saxophonist John Coltrane named his son Ravi Coltrane after Shankar.
*.On April 7th 2016 Google published a Google Doodle to honor his work.

On his Death Anniversary, Hindustani Classical Music And Everything pays rich tributes to the legend and are very grateful for his contributions to the Indian Classical Music. 🙇🙏💐