EXCLUSIVE | Musician Anoushka Shankar on her India Tour 2024: 'Hope people enjoy my music and I have a wonderful time'

British-American sitar player and musician Anoushka Shankar shall be traveling to India for her music tour from January 22- 31 and the shows will happen in cities like Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, and Hyderabad.

The Shankar house, a respite from a world where she grew up under the public’s intense gaze, was seldom a silent place. Musicians were a permanent presence – learning, rehearsing, improvising, or simply playing musical games around the dinner table. Anoushka began studying the sitar – and Indian classical music – from the age of 9 under the intensive tutelage of her father, Pandit Ravi Shankar: a master of the instrument, and a figure without whom 20th Century music would quite simply not have been what it was.

In an exclusive interview with Firstpost, Anoushka spoke about coming to India for her tour, the challenges and evolution of music in today’s day and age, and her expectations from her performance in the country.

Edited excerpts from the interview

Your new album is called Chapter One: Forever, For Now. How did you prepare for it?

It can be difficult to explain the prep since it involves months and months of feelings and emotions, and then coming closer and closer to clear them. And then comes the emotions that manifest those feelings, after that, I start to think about who I need to work with to bring that about. My main aim behind these mini albums was to capture the little moments.

What is the source of inspiration every time you compose or sing or even play?

There isn’t one source of inspiration other than life itself because these inspirations can be personal in my own life, both positive and negative, or external life events that could be unjust or even inspiring. Inspiration can be anywhere, it’s all about being open and learning how to channel.

What are the challenges artists face in the field of music?

We all go through difficult times and we all have to pick ourselves up. In work context, there are different situations but you can’t cancel the show last moment and you have to show up anyway; that can be incredibly difficult for the artists. The audiences expect them to put up a great show even if something horrific might be happening in their lives none of us know about, it’s very tricky. There’s a gift as well, we can transcend pain by making art out of it and connect with the human spirit because our pain has a purpose and it can help us evolve too.

How much do you feel Indian music has evolved in the last few years?

There’s no question that it has evolved a lot. The whole industry has changed and there’s space for so many genres now. I think that’s really good and it’s giving people their bread and butter and giving them the opportunity to explore their horizons.

What are your expectations from your this year’s India Tour?

I don’t have expectations but I have hopes. I hope people enjoy my music and I have a wonderful time with everyone. I hope they like the new music. I’m touring with some incredible musicians that I brought to India in 2022 and then we went global. We will be playing a lot of new music.