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Lakshmi Shankar - Felicitation, Interview and performance
October 11, 2008, 8:00 PM
 Smt. Lakshmi Shankar is one of the foremost and well-known Hindustani classical vocalists of the Patiala Gharana, known for her performances of khyal, thumri, and bhajans.
Born in 1926, she initially started her career in dancing. In 1939, when Uday Shankar brought his dance troupe to Madras (Chennai), she decided to join the Almora Centre to learn Uday Shankar's original style of dance based on the Indian classics and became a part of his troupe. That is when her association to the Shankar family began. She married Uday Shankar's brother, Rajendra (Raju). After a period of illness during which she had to give up dancing, and already having had a background of Carnatic music, she moved to Hindustani classical music and trained rigorously for many years under Ustad Abdul Rehman Khan.
Later she learnt from many masters including Prof. B.R. Deodhar and also from the sitar Maestro, Pandit Ravi Shankar, whom she assisted in most of his projects for ballets, films, fusions and festivals.
The magic of her rich, melodious voice, her sense of proportion and the emotional content of her singing are some of the qualities that have made her one of the foremost and most popular vocalists since the last fifty years.
Lakshmi-ji has done pioneering work to popularize Indian Classical vocal music in the west. She has numerous recordings to her credit and has lent her voice to many films, including the Academy Award-winning 'Gandhi' by Sir Richard Attenborough.
She is also recipient of the Durfee Foundation(L.A.) to teach Indian music to American students.
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