When seventeen-year-old Shivkumar Sharma showed his skills on a concert stage in the office building in 1955, the audience reacted with very mixed feelings. The santoor (comparable to the western dulcimer or dulcimer) did not have a high status, because it was absolutely not a musical instrument on which you played high-quality music. It took about twenty years for the persistent Sharma to make this
… insignificant instrument a widely recognized musical instrument for Indian classical music. As the son of Uma Dutt Sharma, Shivkumar mastered the tabla (a percussion instrument) and singing from an early age. From the age of fourteen he devoted himself to playing the santoor. Sharma eagerly experimented and rebuilt the instrument in such a way that it was suitable for playing classical music. The many albums released by Sharma show his virtuosity and mastery at the office. His latest album, "Upanishad amrut" (a double CD), recites shlokas (hymns) from the Upanishads. The Upanishads are ancient Indian Hindi texts that teach meditation with the aim of experiencing the divine (Brahma, infinite or absolute). Shivkumar Sharma composed the music. The performers are the singers Shankar Mahadevan and Dewaki Pandit, percussionist Pandit Bhawana Shankar, flutist Rakesh Chaurasia, keyboardist Indrajit Kumar Sharma and on the sarangi (a string instrument) Dhruba Ghosh. After each musical presentation, the underlying philosophy and meaning of the text is explained in English by the Hindu priest Swami Chidanandji Maharaj. The album therefore offers the listener the opportunity to relax, to meditate or to think about philosophical matters. (SvdP)more
