Some of Pandit Shivkumar Sharma’s career milestones

Born on January 13, 1938, Shivkumar Sharma was only five when his father Uma Dutt Sharma started giving him vocal and tabla lessons. Growing up, his favourite pieces of music were Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan’s renditions of Kedar and Jaijaivanti

Sharma was 12 when he started learning the santoor; in 1955, he gave his first live performance. The one-hour-long rendition of Raga Yaman left his audience in Mumbai shouting ‘Encore!’

In 1955, Sharma even composed the background music for one of the scenes in V. Shantaram’s blockbuster hit, Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baje

In 1960, a 22-year-old Sharma left Jammu for Bombay, determined to make a career in music

Call of the Valley (1967), the first album Sharma and flautist Hariprasad Chaurasia released together, became HMV’s bestselling classical record in India

Sharma’s 1968 concert in Los Angeles was his first performance abroad. He followed this with a tour of England in 1970

The duo Shiv-Hari went on to score music for eight films, seven of which were directed by Yash Chopra. These included Silsila (1981), Chandni (1989) and Lamhe (1991)

In 1996, Sharma and his son Rahul played the santoor on a Norway stage as “equals” for the first time

Sharma was awarded the Padma Shri in 1991 and the Padma Bhushan in 2001