World-renowned sitarist and composer Ravi Shankar to perform at SU Sept. 26

World-renowned sitarist and composer Ravi Shankar to perform at SU Sept. 26September 13, 2006Kelly Homan Rodoskikahoman@syr.edu

Legendary composer and sitarist Ravi Shankar and his daughter Anoushka will perform world and classical music from India Tuesday, Sept. 26, as part of the 2006 Syracuse Symposium: Imagination and the 2006-07 Syracuse University Pulse season. The symposium is hosted by The College of Arts and Sciences at SU.

The event will begin at 8 p.m. in Goldstein Auditorium in the Hildegarde and J. Myer Schine Student Center. Tickets — $20 for the general public, $10 for SU faculty, staff and alumni; and $5 for students with valid SU I.D. — are available for purchase at the Schine Box Office, (315) 443-4517. Paid parking for the public is available in the Marion lot and University Avenue Garage.

Ravi Shankar is known as India’s most esteemed musical ambassador and a phenomenon in the classical music worlds of both the East and the West. The late musician George Harrison called him “The Godfather of World Music.”

After long years of study under Baba Allaudin Khan, and making a name for himself in India, Shankar went on to become one of the most recognized musicians around the world. He is renowned for his stunning improvisations. His performances at the Monterey Pop Festival, the Woodstock Festival and the Concert for Bangladesh are legendary. He has received numerous honors and awards and was nominated to the Rajya Sabha, India’s upper house of Parliament, in 1986.

Anoushka Shankar has been playing and studying the sitar with her father since she was 9; at 13 she made her performing debut in New Delhi, India. Her first solo recording, “Anoushka,” was released in 1998, followed by “Anourag” in 2000 and “Live at Carnegie Hall” in 2001.

After a year’s sabbatical in 2004, Anoushka returned to the concert stage alone and with her father, but she has also grown as a composer. She scored the music for a short film titled “Ancient Marks” and released her fourth solo album, “Rise,” in 2005.

Syracuse Symposium is a semester-long intellectual and artistic festival that celebrates interdisciplinary thinking, imagination and creation. This year’s theme is “Imagination.” For more information on symposium events, visit http://symposium.syr.edu.

Pulse provides SU students and the Central New York community with opportunities to attend and participate in programs, performances, exhibitions and events in the visual and performing arts. It is a collaborative project of SU’s Division of Student Affairs and College of Visual and Performing Arts.

Pulse is now hosting weekly podcasts on its website, http://pulse.syr.edu, and will feature a preview of the Shankar concert Sept. 21-27. Graduate students in the Goldring Arts Journalism Program in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications produce the podcasts.