Shankar, Ravi (1920– )

Indian composer and virtuoso of the sitar. He has been influential in making Indian music more popular in the West. He has composed two concertos for sitar and orchestra (1971 and 1981), and film music, including scores for Satyajit Ray's Pather Panchali (1955) and Richard Attenborough's Gandhi (1982). He also founded music schools in Bombay (now Mumbai), India (1962), and Los Angeles, California (1967).

He worked first with a group of musicians and dancers led by his brother, Uday Shankar (1900–77). He founded the National Orchestra of All-India Radio and was founder-director of the Kinnara School of Music at Bombay in 1962. Other compositions include the opera-ballet Ghanashyam/A Broken Branch, which was premiered by the City of Birmingham Touring Opera in 1989.