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Friday, April 19, 2024
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L. Shanker - World renowned violinist & vocalist
L Shenkar is an Indian born American Grammy Award winner Violinist, Singer and Composer. He mainly works on Carnatic music, World Music and Pop Music.
Born in 1950 to a illustrious family of Musicians, L. Shankar started learning the nuances of classical music at age 2 and violin at 5 years of age. He began performing on stage at age 7. In his early career, he accompanied stalwarts such as Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavathar, Semmangudi Srinivasar and more extensively with the 'thunderous drummer' Palakkad Mani Iyer as mentioned by Shankar. He was also a member of the violin trio with his brothers L. Vaidyanathan and L. Subramaniam.
By 1969, he had left India and settled down in the USA. Shankar's association with guitarist John McLaughlin, first as a member of the Mahavishnu Orchestra and then as co-founder and co-writer of 'Shakti', a group that included John Mclaughlin, Zakir Hussain and Vikku Vinayakram, brought him critical acclaim throughout the world. Shankar was also in the limelight for his invention of the 10 string stereophonic Double Violin which covers the entire range of the orchestra’s double bass, cello, viola and violin, and is the only one in the world. Shankar worked on the score of films like 'The Last Temptation of Christ' (1988) , 'Robin Hood' (1991), 'The Passion of the Christ' (2004) etc.
Shankar has many albums and videos to his credit, classical as well as pop, rock and electronic dance music albums, involing world renouned musicians, some of which has been on top of the charts .
Shenkar has collaborated with Frank Zappa (who produced Shenkar’s solo record for Zappa Records), Talking Heads, Pete Townsend (The Who), Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins, U2, Lou Reed, Marianne Faithful, Sting, Jeff Beck, Bruce Springsteen, Van Morrison, The Pretenders, Echo & The Bunnymen, John Lydon (Public Image Ltd.), George Harrison, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Dave Stewart, Scott Page (Pink Floyd), Jonathan Davis (Korn), Robert Trujillo (Metallica), Stephen Perkins (Jane's Addiction), and many more.
Shenkar moved to India in January 2016, and has been staying in Palakkad, Kerala since, and extensively touring and teaching in India and abroad.
