The queen of strings

Tell us about your initiation into music. A. I began playing the sitar when I was seven years old from my father Pt. Ravi Shankar. It was quite casual in the beginning, though even at that age I knew there was a kind of weight to learning this instrument from someone like him. But over the years it got a bit more serious. By the time I was 13, I was already performing. At 14, I was touring with my father, accompanying him in his shows; and once I was 18, I was touring on my own.

Q. Having a great musical lineage, did you face any difficulty in cultivating your own musical style? A. I think I was fortunate to have the kind of training I had from my father from that young age and I also had a lot of opportunities as a result of that. But in a way, I also struggled to find my own identity and voice as a sitar player for quite a while. I was trained by my dad in a very incredible way. But his sound and identity are so strong that I think I was also in danger of being just a parrot maybe, and not having my own voice. So I had to go away and look at that in my 20s. I had to find a way to use this incredible learning I’d received from my father and play his music, and play it the way he taught me… but also to find my own character within that, my own sound, my own expression. I feel grateful that over the years I’ve been able to do that more and more. I feel like it’s an ongoing journey that I hope it continues for a long time.

Q. Tell us about your musical training under the tutelage of your father, the sitar maestro Ravi Shankar? A. Learning from him was quite incredible. He was obviously an incredible player, but he was also an incredible teacher and it was a really big part of our relationship. He was my father, but he was also my guru. A big part of our connection was in the music, whether while learning or on the stage. It was a really beautiful relationship.

Q. Today you have established yourself as one of