Context
84-year-old santoor legend Pandit Shivakumar Sharma, another vein of Hindustani classical music, passed away due to cardiac arrest.
Important facts about Pandit Ji
- Born in Jammu in 1938, Sharma began learning santoor at the age of 13 when it was a 100-stringed instrument played solely in Jammu and Kashmir folk music.
- Pandit Shivshankar is known to give Santoor, a status among other traditional instrument like sitar and sarod.
Santoor
- Santoor is a 100-stringed, stretched over 25 bridges, lesser known musical instrument from Jammu and Kashmir.
- It is played by striking the strings with two wooden sticks.
- It was played to accompany the singing of sufiyana kalam.
- The only instrument in Hindustani classical music that is struck, santoor produces a staccato sound and does not lend itself to meend (sliding over notes), gamak (exaggerated, regular fluctuation in pitch) and andolan (vibrato; slowly shaking a note), which are the essential characteristics of Hindustani classical music.
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- He followed the legacy of his father Pt Uma Dutt Sharma, a famous vocalist and tabla player of J&K.
- He has worked with several other legendary people like flautist Hariprasad Chaurasia and guitarist Brij Bhushan.
- Pandit Sharma's album called Call of the Valley, which released in 1967 where he collaborated with flautist Hariprasad Chaurasia and guitar player Brijbhushan Kabra, holds the record of being one of the largest-selling Hindustani records.
Awards and Recognition
- He was conferred with the prestigious Sangeet Natak Academy Award in 1986, and with the Padma Shri in 1991.
- He was also awarded the Padma Vibhuhan in 2001.
- Sharma has played before the House of Lords in the UK and the Queen of the Netherlands and also been conferred honorary citizenship of the US city of Baltimore for his contribution to music.
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