L. Shankar

Lakshminarayana Shankar (born 26 April 1950), also known as L. Shankar and Shenkar, is an Indian-born American violinist, singer and composer. He has worked extensively in both traditional music from India, and in jazz, free improvisation and popular music, notably with singer Peter Gabriel in the latter.

Early life

Shankar was born in Madras, Tamil Nadu. Growing up in Jaffna, Sri Lanka, where his father V. Lakshminarayana Iyer was a professor at the Jaffna College of Music, Shankar was exposed to Carnatic music and other styles from an early age. His father was an esteemed violinist, his mother L. Seethalakshmi played the veena and all his five older siblings were also proficient in music. His brothers include the renowned violinist L. Subramaniam and L. Vaidyanathan, a music composer for Indian films. Shankar cites his family and Tyāgarāja as early inspirations.

Shankar was "[c]apable of humming complex lines from accent Indian compositions" when he was three years of age, and two years later began his study of the violin. He is said to have learned to play drums at the age of seven. At the age of seven, Shankar gave his first public concert, at a Ceylonese temple,Nallur Kandaswarmy. As Archana Dongre of Hinduism Today notes, "He gained considerable reputation in his early youth as an accompanist to some of the most eminent names in Carnatic music, playing all through India," names such as Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, Chembai Vaithyanatha Baghavatar, Palghat Mani Iyer, and Alathur Srinivasa Iyer. Following the ethnic riots in Sri Lanka in the early 1950s, his family escaped to India.