Santoor maestro Shiv Kumar Sharma dies at 84
Image credit: Tribune India
Shiv Kumar Sharma, an 84-year-old Indian classical music legend, has died. He played the santoor, which is a dulcimer-like instrument. On Tuesday morning, he suffered a heart attack at his Mumbai home.
Sharma is credited with making the santoor, a Kashmiri instrument, into a key instrument in Indian classical music.
At least eight Bollywood films, including Silsila, Chandni, Darr, and Lamhe, were composed by Shiv-Hari.
Sharma grew up in Jammu, in a house beside a river where “from dawn to nightfall, someone or the other was singing or playing an instrument,” as he put it.
At the age of 17, Sharma was playing the santoor and tabla for the local radio station. He blossomed into a versatile performer, subsequently performing for maestros such as Ravi Shankar (sitar) and Ustad Ali Akbar Khan on the tabla (sarod).
Sharma, according to singer Vijay Kichlu, “made the santoor a major component of Indian classical music.”
He had rejected an offer from V Shantaram, a Bollywood director, to create a song for his film when he was 17, claiming that his calling was elsewhere.
He arrived in Mumbai five years later, looking for music-related work in the film industry, having also earned a master’s degree in finance.
Sharma, a rare artist who could seamlessly blend classical and popular music, played the santoor on at least 40 renowned Hindi film songs performed by legends like Lata Mangeshkar, Mohammed Rafi, Kishore Kumar, and Mukesh.
Kumar and Chaurasia made history in 1998 when they performed with Alanis Morissette, Elton John, and Phil Collins at the Nobel Prize ceremony in Oslo. The duo also performed at India’s parliament’s central hall.
Sharma was awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1986, the Padma Shri Award in 1991, and the Padma Vibhushan Award in 2001.
His wife and two sons are his only survivors. Rahul, one of his kids, is a well-known santoor player who has collaborated with Richard Clayderman and Kenny G.
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