Musical training and work in India Shankar's parents had died by the time he returned from the European tour, and touring the West had become difficult because of political conflicts that would lead to
World War II. In 1938, Shankar decided to leave his dancing career to study
Indian classical music under the tutelage of Khan in
Maihar. He lived with Khan’s family as part of the traditional
gurukul system. He often studied with Khan's children
Ali Akbar Khan and
Annapurna Devi. Shankar completed his musical training in 1944. Shankar recomposed the music for the popular song "
Sare Jahan Se Achcha" at the age of 25. He began to record music for
His Master's Voice and worked as a music director for
All India Radio (AIR), New Delhi, from February 1949 until January 1956. Beginning in the mid-1950s he composed the music for the
Apu Trilogy by
Satyajit Ray, which became internationally acclaimed. He was music director for several Hindi movies including
Godaan and
Anuradha.
1956–1969 International performances V. K. Narayana Menon, director of AIR Delhi, introduced the Western violinist Yehudi Menuhin to Shankar during Menuhin's first visit to India in 1952. Shankar had performed as part of a cultural delegation in the
Soviet Union in 1954 and Menuhin invited Shankar in 1955 to perform in New York City for a demonstration of Indian classical music, sponsored by the
Ford Foundation. Shankar heard about the positive response Khan received and resigned from AIR in 1956 to tour the United Kingdom, Germany, and the United States. He played for smaller audiences and educated them about Indian music, incorporating
ragas from the
South Indian
Carnatic music in his performances, and recorded his first
LP album Three Ragas in London, released in 1956. Shankar befriended
Richard Bock, founder of
World Pacific Records, on his first American tour and recorded most of his albums in the 1950s and 1960s for Bock's label. In 1967, Shankar performed a well-received set at the
Monterey Pop Festival. While complimentary of the talents of several of the rock artists at the festival, he said he was "horrified" to see
Jimi Hendrix set fire to his guitar on stage: "That was too much for me. In our culture, we have such respect for musical instruments, they are like part of God." Shankar's
live album from Monterey peaked at number 43 on
Billboards
pop LPs chart in the US, which remains the highest placing he achieved on that chart. Shankar won a
Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance for
West Meets East, a collaboration with Yehudi Menuhin. He opened a Western branch of the Kinnara School of Music in Los Angeles, in May 1967, and published an autobiography,
My Music, My Life, in 1968. He explained during an interview:
1970–2012: International performances In October 1970, Shankar became chair of the Department of Indian Music of the
California Institute of the Arts after previously teaching at the
City College of New York, the
University of California, Los Angeles, and being guest lecturer at other colleges and universities, including the
Ali Akbar College of Music. Shankar performed at the
Concert for Bangladesh in August 1971, held at
Madison Square Garden in New York. After the musicians had tuned up on stage for over a minute, the crowd of rock-music fans broke into applause, to which the amused Shankar responded, "If you like our tuning so much, I hope you will enjoy the playing more." which confused the audience. Still, the audience well received the subsequent performance. Although interest in Indian music had decreased in the early 1970s, the
live album from the concert became one of the best-selling recordings to feature the genre and won Shankar a second Grammy Award. In November and December 1974, Shankar co-headlined a
North American tour with George Harrison. The demanding schedule weakened his health, and he suffered a heart attack in Chicago, causing him to miss a portion of the tour. Harrison, Shankar and members of the touring band visited the
White House on invitation of
John Gardner Ford, son of US president
Gerald Ford. Shankar was nominated for an
Academy Award for Best Original Music Score for his work on the 1982 movie
Gandhi. He performed in Moscow in 1988, with 140 musicians, including the Russian Folk Ensemble and members of the Moscow Philharmonic, along with his own group of Indian musicians. Shankar composed the dance drama
Ghanashyam in 1989. He performed between 25 and 40 concerts every year during the late 1990s. He performed with Anoushka for the
BBC in 1997 at the
Symphony Hall in Birmingham, England. In the 2000s, he won a
Grammy Award for Best World Music Album for
Full Circle: Carnegie Hall 2000 and toured with Anoushka, who released a book about her father,
Bapi: Love of My Life, in 2002. After George Harrison's death in 2001, Shankar performed at the
Concert for George, a celebration of Harrison's music staged at the
Royal Albert Hall in London in 2002. In June 2008, Shankar played what was billed as his last European concert, On 1 July 2010, at the
Southbank Centre's
Royal Festival Hall, London, England,
Anoushka Shankar, on sitar, performed with the
London Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by David Murphy, which was billed the first
Symphony by Ravi Shankar.
Collaboration with George Harrison The Beatles' guitarist
George Harrison, who was first introduced to Shankar's music by the American singers
Roger McGuinn and
David Crosby, themselves big fans of Shankar, became influenced by Shankar's music. Harrison went on to help popularize Shankar and the
use of Indian instruments in pop music throughout the 1960s.
Olivia Harrison explains: Harrison became interested in Indian classical music, bought a sitar and used it to record the song "
Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)". In 1968, he went to India to take lessons from Shankar, some of which were captured on film. This led to Indian music being used by other musicians and popularised the
raga rock trend. The influence even extended to blues musicians such as
Michael Bloomfield, who created a raga-influenced improvisation number, "East-West" (Bloomfield scholars have cited its working title as "The Raga" when Bloomfield and his collaborator
Nick Gravenites began to develop the idea) for the
Butterfield Blues Band in 1966. Harrison met Shankar in London in June 1966 and visited India later that year for six weeks to study
sitar under Shankar in
Srinagar. During the visit, a documentary film about Shankar named
Raga was shot by Howard Worth and released in 1971. Shankar's association with Harrison greatly increased Shankar's popularity, and decades later
Ken Hunt of
AllMusic wrote that Shankar had become "the most famous Indian musician on the planet" by 1966. During the 1970s, Shankar and Harrison worked together again, recording
Shankar Family & Friends in 1973 and touring North America the following year to a mixed response after Shankar had toured Europe with the Harrison-sponsored
Music Festival from India. Shankar wrote a second autobiography,
Raga Mala, with Harrison as editor. == Style and contributions ==