Shivkumar Sharma

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Shivkumar Sharma (born January 13, 1938) is an Indian classical musician, working in the Hindustani classical music tradition. He is a master of the santoor, a folk instrument from the valley of Kashmir. It is a type of hammered dulcimer whose strings are struck with a pair of light carved wooden mallets. Before him the santoor was regarded as only an accompanying instrument.

He is credited with single-handedly making the santoor a popular classical instrument, to the extent that the santoor and Pandit Shivkumar Sharma are synonymous. Sharma modified the Kashmiri folk instrument to make it more suitable for his classical technique, increasing the range of the instrument to three full octaves and making it capable of a smoother meend (the glissando or gliding between notes required in Hindustani classical music to emulate the human voice). Besides, he also created a new technique of playing with which he could sustain notes and maintain sound continuity.

Sharma has performed many concerts with renowned musicians such as the tabla maestro Ustad Zakir Hussain. He has also partnered with well-known flautist Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia to form a group called Shiv-Hari for composing Hindi film music.

Shivkumar Sharma is the recipient of many national and international awards including honorary citizenship of the city of Baltimore, USA (1985), Sangeet Natak Academy Award (1986)
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  • Akayz7 wrote:
    Monday evening
    very soothing stuff.

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  • Planeta_Lassu wrote:
    December 2011
    OM ATHMA OM ♪♪♪

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  • adityarj wrote:
    November 2011
    very soft music..............good!

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  • koyukon wrote:
    February 2011
    lovely peaceful music ... thank you

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  • rameshhp wrote:
    July 2010
    Smekermann: Take a look at the pattern of what I have been listening and you will realize if I am just a Sharma fan or more. You can't fault me for worshipping Sharma - his music is life-giving. At the same time, I also admire the music of other great ones like Ravi Shankar, Nikhil Banerjee, Hariprasad Chaurasia, Bhimsen Joshi, Jasraj etc. Santoor is surely addictive. Again, I don't agree that the Elements series is cheesy - it is just an experiment outside the pure classical arena. Even there, many of the tracks are based on ragas.

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  • Smekermann wrote:
    July 2010
    and rameshhhppp, srsly bra, you gotta stop with the sharma worship. you sound like his PR agent or something.

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  • Smekermann wrote:
    July 2010
    the thing is that there's a huge difference between listening to shitty new age albums with indian instruments and listening to proper IC music. IC is pretty much all improvised and the interplay between the instruments (well, the main instrument and the percussion accompaniment, generally) is pretty amazing, especially when dealing with masters of their craft (ie. sharma, zakir hussain). Elements and other albums of its ilk, on the other hand, have absolutely none of the depth and are basically dumbed-down albums to appeal to yoga housewives and dumb stoners who think it's cool to hear some sitar twanging while they get high.

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  • quora wrote:
    July 2009
    yep, agreed about "elements" - too much cheesy arrangements (keyboards and similar new age stuff) which change the music very much but, otherwise, this album is easy listenable for many, so, it may attract some people to his pure santoor music

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  • rameshhp wrote:
    June 2009
    If you want to attain "nirvana" (liberation, higher bliss) through music, try Shivkumar Sharma's music. He has had more than 100 albums to his credit and not one of them is bad. Perfect balance of melody and rhythm, technically and aesthetically superior. Try his "A Concerto in Raga Yaman" which is available on iTunes -- an incredible live concert recording made in 1988, with Zakir Hussain on tabla.

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  • Akarik wrote:
    June 2009
    I think that Raga Rageswari is one of the greatest things I`ve ever heard.

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  • LondonLouis wrote:
    January 2009
    Just working my way into Indian music. Raga Charukeshi certainly grabbed me.

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  • rameshhp wrote:
    January 2009
    It's weird that people make comments about some music without even listening to it :-)

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  • klimaz wrote:
    October 2008
    Need to unify Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma, Pt. Shiv Kumar Sharma, Pt Shiv Kumar Sharma, Shiv Kumar Sharma, and Shivkumar Sharma

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  • LAMAMACHA wrote:
    September 2008
    !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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  • dgallego wrote:
    July 2008
    instead of endless debating you could relax, listen to his music and let it to pull you up, and at the same time blow your head appart!

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  • rameshhp wrote:
    June 2008
    "Elements: Water" and "Music of the Mountains" are embarrassing? Just see how many of the top tracks for this artist are from those albums! Mountain Love Song, Himalayan Dawn, Springtime, Evening Prayer, Spirit of Kashmir, Walking in the Rain, Twilight Shadows, Echoes From The Valley, Ballad, Sunrise on the Peaks, Dewdrops, Shikara By Moonlight -- all these in top 20! I am sure these albums will pull a lot many listeners into the heavenly realms of Indian classical music!

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  • rameshhp wrote:
    December 2007
    Smekermann seems to have a bad music taste. The Elements and Music of the Mountains are great albums where Shivkumar Sharma fits Indian classical music into a thematic framework with stunning results. Cheesy and Shitty are not the terms befitting a legendary musician like Shivkumar Sharma or Zakir Hussain. Smekermann, grow up!

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  • rameshhp wrote:
    December 2007
    Dear Panditji, Thank you very much for your life-changing, life-giving music. I am lucky to have come across your music early in my life. I pray that more and more people around the world get to relish your soulful music. Respectfully, Ramesh

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  • sanytramk wrote:
    December 2007
    It's like language of God. Magnificent

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  • astro1_rohit wrote:
    November 2007
    tag: indian classical

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