Four-time Grammy nominee, sitar virtuoso Anoushka Shankar returns to India this winter for a four-city tour of the sub-continent, in support of her new album “Home”.  Blessed with an unerring sense of melody and an intuitive understanding of her instrument, the Sitar virtuoso returns to her roots and will travel to  Mumbai (12th), New Delhi (13th), Jaipur (15th) and Bengaluru (18th) in December. The tour is being curated by Alchemist Marketing Solutions. Joining Anoushka on her trip to India will be her husband and acclaimed film director Joe Wright, and her two sons, Zubin and Mohan.

The Grammy award nominee states, “I am very excited to be back in India after 2 years.  “Home” is a special album to me for many reasons. It is an album about going back to my roots, and was recorded as an homage to my father and guru Pandit Ravi Shankar. It was also special because it was recorded while I was expecting my younger son Mohan. This December tour will be Mohan’s first trip to India.”

When asked her thoughts about the album ‘Home’, she speaks fondly about her father, “Indian  classical music is traditionally passed down from guru to disciple over decades of tutelage that encompasses mind, body and soul, a spiritual relationship unlike any other. This is the first time I’m playing classical ragas on an album since he passed away. I felt deeply connected to him during the entire process. It does feel like an offering. It felt like I was reconnecting with him through playing the music that I've learned from him.”

Whilst seemingly off the radar for one and a half years, in India at least, Anoushka has, in fact, been extremely busy. She has been performing on an extended world tour in support of Traces of You, culminating with being a headline act at the iconic  Boom Festival in Portugal for an audiences of 30 thousand, and curating and performing in a festival celebrating the Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore at the prestigious Shakespeare’s Globe in London. She has also produced “Home,” a beautiful album of pure classical ragas, whilst heavily pregnant with her second child.

Anoushka has continued to turned her attention to socio-political causes, lending her support to campaigns such as Global Goals, in the company of other distinguished icons like Hrithik Roshan, AR Rahman, Bono, Jamie Oliver.  As part of Richard Curtis' new global initiative to promote the United Nations sustainable development goals - Project Everyone, Anoushka will be hosting a show on the world’s first pop-up radio station called Radio Everyone.  

The international sitarist has also teamed up with other famous recording artists from different musical backgrounds including ABBA, AR Rahman, and Philip Glass for a global collaborative music project titled Peace Tracks that was released as an album and a free download on UN International Day Of Peace.

After having taking a period of maternity leave, Anoushka is now putting the finishing touches to an as-yet untitled, more experimental album, to be released in early 2016. She has been working with some exciting contemporary artists to produce a culturally and politically relevant album which touches on themes of feminisim, asylum and migration. Watch this space!

After several stunning non-classical albums, including the Grammy nominated recordings ‘Rise’, ‘Traveller’ and ‘Traces Of You’, Anoushka returns to her solo roots, paying homage to the teachings of her father Ravi Shankar. Home features two ragas, one, Jogeshwari, written by her father. This album is a paradigm of classical Indian raga, and showcases Anoushka’s increasing maturity on her instrument.

A beautifully penned treatise on Indian classical music written by Ravi Shankar in 1965 accompanies the album. He says of this music, “a raga is the projection of the artist’s inner spirit, a manifestation of his most profound sentiments and sensibilities brought forth through tones and melodies. The musician must breath life into each raga as he unfolds and expands it.” With ‘Home’, Anoushka continues her journey exploring modern and fresh ways to reinterpret and keep alive the beautiful musical traditions of India, as taught to her by her father.

Recorded in her home studio in London, ‘Home’ is Anoushka’s third release on Deutsche Grammophon.