Pandit Shivkumar Sharma
Shivkumar Sharma was one of the truly great visionaries in the Hindustani classical music firmament. His popularity created a knotty problem for his admirers. His success led to a demand for recordings by him, to a degree that having a Shivkumar Sharma album acted like a kind of validation for a label. Consequently the market was flooded with his recordings. His playing was consummate, and he rarely recorded a piece of work that is below par, which makes selecting a shortlist even more difficult.
Sharma's story was one of dedication. He was born in January 1938 in Jammu Kashmir. His father Uma Dutt Sharma asked him to pursue the development of the Kashmiri santoor. Being a dutiful son he obeyed and persevered despite private reservations. Though its Persian relative, the santur, had associations with Persian and Iranian classical music, elevating the Indian instrument to the classical concert platform was widely viewed as folly in conservative quarters. But Shivkumar Sharma persisted, experimented, restrung and reconfigured his instrument. His first major santoor recital took place in Bombay in February 1955, but it took, he reckons, until the 1970s to finally silence the querulous, "the die-hard connoisseurs of the music, musicologists and purists." Parallel with his development of the santoor he worked as a tabla player (he accompanied acts as diverse as the renowned Punjabi folksinger Surinder Kaur and sitar maestro Ravi Shankar), and his understanding of tabla playing and rhythm immeasurably enhanced his performance style and stagecraft. Shivkumar Sharma died in a hospital in Mumbai on May 10, 2022 from a cardiac arrest; he was 84 years old.
© Ken Hunt /TiVo
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Discography
14 album(s) • Sorted by Bestseller
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The Flow of Time
World - Released by Navras Records on 20 Jul 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
A Morning Raga Gurjari Todi with Pandit Shivkumar Sharma
World - Released by Navras Records on 1 Jan 1994
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Valley Recalls, Vol. 2 (Live)
World - Released by Navras Records on 15 Sep 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Immortal Essence (Instrumental)
Indian Music - Released by Universal Music India Pvt Ltd. on 1 Jan 1997
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Santoor Viraasat, Vol. 1
Pandit Shivkumar Sharma, Rahul Sharma, Zakir Hussain
World - Released by Ninaad Music on 1 Jan 1998
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Enchanting Moments
Pandit Shivkumar Sharma, Shafaat Ahmed Khan
World - Released by Ninaad Music on 1 Jan 1996
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Santoor Viraasat, Vol. 2
Pandit Shivkumar Sharma, Rahul Sharma, Zakir Hussain
World - Released by Ninaad Music on 1 Jan 1998
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Samman 70 (Live)
World - Released by Navras Records on 1 Oct 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
An Audience with Pandit Shivkumar Sharma (Live)
World - Released by Navras Records on 28 Jul 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Divinity At Dawn
World - Released by Navras Records on 24 Jan 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Raga Puriya (Live)
World - Released by Navras Records on 24 May 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beyond Horizon (Instrumental)
Indian Music - Released by Universal Music India Pvt Ltd. on 1 Jan 1994
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Shivkumar Sharma - Santoor
Pandit Shivkumar Sharma, Zakir Hussain
World - Released by Moment Records on 1 Jan 1993
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Positive Feelings
World - Released by Ninaad Music on 1 Jan 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo