Band lineup and Spring dates
Current mood: adventurous

Hey everyone, over the next three weeks The Anoushka Shankar Project wraps up a tour started last summer in Europe. As Ravichandra Kulur, my beautiful flutist, is taking time out to have a baby he will be replaced by Sanjiv Shankar on shehnai. The rest of the usual suspects- Tanmoy Bose on tabla, Leo Dombecki on flute, and Jesse Charnow on drumkit will be there.

March 28- Tucson, AZ
March 29- Mesa, AZ
March 31- Bend, OR
April 1- Portland, OR
April 2/3- Kirkland, WA
April 5- Davis, CA
April 7- Los Angeles, CA
April 10- Minneapolis, MN

*** April 11/12- Littleton, MA (Performance of Ravi Shankar Sitar Concerto 1)

Come May we’ll be starting a whole new tour with some new music and instrumentation. Will keep you posted...

Hope to see you somewhere! Thanks as always, for the support and kind wishes, it means a lot!

Anoushka

10:50 AM - 26 Comments - 27 Kudos - Add Comment

album release, shows, etc!

Hi everyone, happy new year!

"Breathing Under Water" is releasing in India on Saregama this coming Monday, January 21st.

Karsh Kale and I, along with a specially created band, will be performing music from the album on 26th January at the Jaipur Literature Festival.

I'm thrilled to mention that YES, I will finally be touring Australia next summer! We'll post dates for that and the Far East closer to the time.

Best wishes to everyone for a wonderful year!
Anoushka

11:15 PM - 34 Comments - 39 Kudos - Add Comment

India shows this December!
Category: Music

Hello everyone!

I hope everyone is keeping warm and having a beautiful holiday season. I've recently returned to my beloved India and am so happy to be back. Just wanted to write and let people know that my father and I have two special concerts coming up this month.

One is in Pune this Saturday the 15th. It's my debut appearance in Pune so i'm very excited about that. The next is at the Calcutta Club on December 29th as part of their Centenary celebrations.

On a personal level, life has been a little crazy and tumultuous recently, so I wanted to apologise about all the beautiful letters and comments I've not had the chance to reply to personally. As always, I'm deeply thankful.

Happy holidays!
Anoushka

11:46 PM - 15 Comments - 28 Kudos - Add Comment

duet with Philip Glass
Current mood: excited
Category: Music

Hi everyone,

Am in New York for an event tonight in which I get to play a duet with the maestro, Philip Glass! It's very exciting and a huge honour for me. The Asian Cultural Gala is hosting an event at the Lincoln Center, honouring my father Ravi Shankar, Philip Glass and myself (for some bewildering reason!). At the end of the night I'll have the opportunity to play with Philip, a combination of a piece of his, my own improvisation and a piece of my father's.

We're in talks about recording this in the future, will keep you posted. Thanks, as always, for the support.
Best, Anoushka

9:15 AM - 14 Comments - 26 Kudos - Add Comment

Ravi Shankar on tour!
Current mood: artistic
Category: Music

Hey guys,

Just finished a few fun shows with the Anoushka Shankar Project here in the States. It was a very short tour, but we pick it up again in March and continue traveling North America with my slightly more experimental band.

Tomorrow I join my father Ravi Shankar to begin his tour, starting October 13th at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. We'll be stopping by Toronto, San Francisco and new York's Carnegie Hall among other places, so do come out to see us if possible!

At age 87, I swear, to me it's like he's playing better than ever.

Anoushka

8:39 PM - 18 Comments - 23 Kudos - Add Comment

"breathing under water" is out now! and...
Current mood: creative
Category: Music

Hey everyone,

Last night I was at dinner with some friends in Santa Monica and suddenly I heard "Ghost Story" from my new album with Karsh Kale playing over the system. It's really at a moment like that when it truly hits- the album is out!!!! I was so happy...this record has happened over a course of two intense years and while it was hard to let go of it I'm so happy and proud it's out.

Those of you who were at one of the four shows we did- thanks for the support and wonderful feedback. Karsh and I had a pretty intense time creating two whole different bands to present the music and now we're excited to try and do more! So we may try to schedule some extra shows around the end of the year.

Next week I leave with my father for London as we'll be playing at the Royal Festival Hall on September 23rd. After that are a few shows in the US with the Anoushka Shankar Project and some more classical concerts.

THANK YOU, as always, for the emails and comments. It means a lot!
Anoushka

1:00 PM - 10 Comments - 16 Kudos - Add Comment

Hello Europe!
Category: Music

Hey Everyone,

First of, thanks, really, as ALWAYS, for the wonderful encouragement and support. Thanks also, to all the dozens of people who responded to my questions about Seattle- we had a great time in Pioneer Square finally! :)

Tomorrow my musicians and I reconvene to begin our new Anoushka Shankar Project European tour. This will feature new compositions of mine which showcase some beautiful Raga creations of my father's, and new, acoustic versions of some pieces from my album Rise. Should be fun, so please come out!

I'm excited to play solo in some countries like Finland, Sweden and Luxembourg for the first time. And, perfectly enough, we finish the tour in my old hometown of London on June 4th so friends, expect an afterparty!

Warm wishes, summer kisses,
Anoushka

10:41 PM - 20 Comments - 20 Kudos - Add Comment

Rise and Fall...
Category: Blogging

Hey all,

Well the USA Rise dates are nearly over, something that fills me with both a sense of accomplishment, and sadness. I've loved getting to present this music onstage, live, and with all the incredible musicians I'm lucky enough to be touring with. The response has been overwhelmingly good and I thank you all for your positive feedback....

We've been everywhere from NYC to Boon, NC and Florida, and JUST finished a three-day trip across the country to begin a few California dates tomorrow. (Thank god for the yummy tour bus!) I'll try to post a couple of video clips when we get a moment, of some of the shows; I know my site is woefully un-updated content-wise! Bear with me...

Thanks again, for coming to the shows, and please do if you haven't yet!
Anoushka

12:55 AM - 37 Comments - 24 Kudos - Add Comment

PETA and the United Nations World Food Programme

The United Nations World Food Program just chose me as their first ambassador in India. As you may know, they are the world's premier food-aid organization and I'm extremely honoured to begin working with them. We began our relationship with the five-day music festival at the Ravi Shankar Centre in New Delhi last month which benefitted both the Centre and the WFP. We plan that to be a long-term association and also, right before leaving Delhi, I shot a public service announcement with them about hunger amongst our children.

Over the years I've done a small amount of work in India with PETA (the People for the Ethical treatment of Animals), so when I was in Mumbai a few weeks ago I asked if there was anything I could do for them. We ended up doing a press shoot and ad against zoos, and cruelty to animals in zoos. The press shot was of me in a leopard outfit up in a tree!! And the actual ad will feature me in a cage. It was fun and strange to get to do something so out of the norm! But more than anything, I hope it helps....will post the final photo once I have it.

1:43 AM - 4 Comments - 16 Kudos - Add Comment

back in the states to tour...
Category: Music

Hi everyone,

First of all, thanks to all the new friends who've added me since New Year's, and as always for all the wonderful comments and letters that have come in. I've hard a tough time replying as I really slacked with emails while in India, so please understand if you haven't heard from me directly. I'll try to update my blog more often so I can be more in touch with you all.

My new album is finished and I think we'll start giving out more info very soon! Please keep an eye out.

I got back to the States yesterday to begin my next tour which starts on Friday in new York City. It'll be very busy, with twenty-two shows in thirty days, and if we're fortunate enough that my father is well enough to tour next month I will jump straight into that tour after my own!

This tour is the very end of my Rise tour; this summer in Europe and onwards I'll be presenting new music, so if you can come out to hear Rise live, please do. It's meant so much to be to share this music with everyone- it's the most personal thing I've ever worked on and I can't BEGIN to explain how it feels that people have connected to it. Thank you, again!

Ok I'll sign off now but I'll write more frequently from the road, once again please come out to a show if you can. I'll post my father's dates by next week and also my European dates.

Best, Anoushka

1:43 AM - 16 Comments - 26 Kudos - Add Comment