Lesser-known facts about santoor maestro Pt Shivkumar Sharma

Sangeet Natak Akademi Award winner and Padma Vibhushan, Pt Shivkumar Sharma is credited to giving santoor a classical status among the ranks of sitar and sarod. He was also the first musician to bring the santoor to Indian cinema.
He passed away today at the age of 84 due to a cardiac arrest. Tributes have started pouring in for the legendary musician, with the Prime Miner and President paying their respects.

Our cultural world is poorer with the demise of Pandit Shivkumar Sharma Ji. He popularised the santoor at a global level. His music will continue to enthral the coming generations. I fondly remember my interactions with him. Condolences to his family and admirers. Om Shanti.
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) May 10, 2022
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. He was following the legacy of his father Pt Uma Dutt Sharma, a famous vocal and tabla player of J&K. But it was the tabla that Sharma started his musical training with at the age of five.

Sharma played in front of an audience for the first time in 1955 in Haridass Sangeet Sammelan, Mumbai. But soon after, Sharma was called back to Jammu his father who wanted him to take up a job offered in the Jammu and Srinagar Radio. However, Sharma wanted to explore music beyond the confines of a government job, and came to Mumbai with INR 500 and his santoor. In an interview with DNA India, Sharma said, “I remember going around looking for work. There were days when I had only an anna in my pocket and nothing to eat. I’d play the tabla to accompany others. Concerts were hard to come because of the negative criticism of the santoor. The odd film assignments helped sustain me.”
Santoor player Pandit Shivkumar Sharma with flute player Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia. (Express archive photo Neeraj Priyadarshi 30.12.1995)

In 1981, legendary filmmaker Yash Chopra offered Sharma and flut Pt Hari Prasad Chaurasia, lovingly called the Shiv-Hari duo, to make the music of Silsila. In the followimng decade, they went on to work on the music for Faasle, Vijay, Chandni, Lamhe, Sahibaan and Darr.
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.
In the DNA India interview, Sharma also said that he stopped making music for films because “Film music depends a great deal on a filmmaker’s taste and thoughts. Today’s film music is influenced heavily Western beats and has more noise than melody. That’s the problem. We’re such great imitators of even mediocrity. So you see even if we had the time, which we clearly don’t, where’re the right kind of directors to work with?”
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