She’s making a name for herself

Young Chang

Anoushka Shankar does typical 21-year-old things, such as spending

free time e-mailing friends, updating her online journal and hanging

out with her dad.

But the friends she’s e-mailing live everywhere from London to

India. Her online journal is spotted with words such as “tour

manager” and “the BBC started following us around.” Her father is the

famous sitar player and composer Ravi Shankar.

Shankar never insisted upon his daughter’s living the

musician-life. He’d stress that she should never feel forced to play.

At age 8, Anoushka Shankar picked up the sitar and “didn’t mind it at

the beginning,” she said. Then she fell in love with it.

Now Shankar, who will perform Wednesday as part of the Eclectic

Orange Festival at the Irvine Barclay Theatre, calls her music

something that “very much ties into me and the whole world.”

The Philharmonic Society and the Barclay will co-present the

concert.

“What’s unique about Anoushka is that she’s so young and so

extremely talented,” said Craddock Stropes, spokesman for the

Philharmonic Society, which puts on the Eclectic Orange Festival.

“It’s interesting that she’s able to be a virtuoso at this

centuries-old music form and yet share the stage with Paul McCartney

and Lauryn Hill.”

Anoushka Shankar is always eager to mix the old with the new.

“I listen to a lot of trance,” she said. “I go to trance festivals

whenever I get time off ....To do a live set with a DJ at a trance

party, that would be crazy. That would be fun.”

But the traditional sounds of the sitar and her love of India as

her most “constant” home make up the foundation of her music.

“It makes me feel very close to India,” she said.

Shankar giggles when asked where she lives.

“That’s the world’s worst question,” she says. “I still have a

house with my parents in San Diego. We’re hardly here at the moment.

My parents have been building the Ravi Shankar Center in New Delhi

... and also I’m thinking about getting an apartment in London.”

The sitar virtuoso, who has recorded numerous collaborations with

her father and performed with Madonna and Sting, has three solo

albums out so far. She’s done the solo-tour circuit and played with

orchestras.

Shankar published a book last August as part of a series in India

called “Family Pride.” The subject is always a legendary person, and

the text is always written by a family member of the legend.

In her journal, she admits that the book release party for “Bapi:

Love of My Life” was one of the best days of her life.

“This book is incredibly personal because it’s about my father, so

it’s about me,” she said. “And it was a huge release party with 600

people there. It was amazing. Everyone’s all dressed up and dripping

jewels, and it was my book.”

Barely in her 20s, she’s worked with everyone from the late George

Harrison, her father’s best friend, to Elton John. Shankar says it’s

glamorous and exciting to have performed with the people she has.

‘But I guess the smaller things too are amazing in one way,” she

said. “For me it’s really any moment when I’m on stage and things are

clicking. There are some moments where you can really feel, on stage,

what’s going on in the audience, and where you can really see they’re

connecting with what you’re doing.”