Anoushka Shankar To Perform in NZ in June

6 APRIL 2008 MEDIA RELEASE – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Acclaimed Musician Anoushka Shankar To Perform in NZ in June

World Music Award winner and Grammy nominee Anoushka Shankar performs in Auckland for one night only in June as part of THE EDGE® International Arts Season 2008.

THE EDGE® International Arts Season and Sulivan Sweetland Ltd present The Anoushka Shankar Project at the Auckland Town Hall, THE EDGE® on Friday 20 June.

Daughter of legendary sitar player Ravi Shankar, Anoushka Shankar has been performing solo since she was a teenager and has received critical acclaim for her extraordinary talents as a writer, actor, composer and sitar player.

Her spellbinding sitar playing skillfully merges classical Indian, electronic and world music and she has worked with many fine musicians around the world including George Harrison, Herbie Hancock, Elton John, Thievery Corporation, Sting, Nitin Sawhney and her half-sister Norah Jones.

"Most people are musicians simply because they play a certain instrument; when they play that instrument, the music appears. But Ravi – to me, he is the music; it just happens to be that he plays the sitar. And it’s like that with Anoushka. She has that quality – she is the music.” – George Harrison

Anoushka Shankar is also not someone afraid to speak out. The first Indian ambassador for the United Nation’s World Food Programme and an extensive campaigner in India for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, she is fast becoming a role model for young independent minded women, not just in her native Delhi but around the world.

Anoushka heads to Auckland on the back of an extensive tour of the United States, Europe and Asia and for this rare one-off Auckland concert, she will perform with an ensemble of virtuoso Eastern and Western musicians in both the classical Indian realm and through a fusion of eastern and western style as shown on her recent albums, Rise and Breathing Under Water.

“The blend of Indian classical, electronics, dance and folk has rarely sounded so natural.” – Los Angeles Daily News

The Anoushka Shankar Project is at the Auckland Town Hall, THE EDGE® as part of THE EDGE® International Arts Season for 2008 on Friday 20 June at 8pm. Tickets are $29-69 and available from Ticketek at www.ticketek.co.nz or phone 0800 TICKETEK.

ENDS

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