Grammy lifetime achievement honour for Pandit Ravi Shankar

Washington: Legendary sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar would receive the lifetime achievement Grammy award, organisers of the top music award announced on Thursday. Shankar would receive the award posthumous on February 10 at the 55th Grammy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles, said the Recording Academy, which gives the prestigious Grammy Awards.

The sitar maestro, who popularised Indian classical music in the West and had a major influence on The Beatles' George Harrison and Yehudi Menuhin, died on Wednesday at the age of 92 after undergoing heart-valve replacement surgery at the Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla, California.

"As one of the world's most renowned sitar players, three-time Grammy winner Ravi Shankar is a true ambassador for international music," said a statement issued by the Recording Academy. "As a performer, composer, teacher and writer, he is considered a pioneer in bringing Indian music to the West.

The sitar maestro, who popularised Indian classical music in the West, died on Wednesday at the age of 92.

With a performance career spanning more than 80 years, he has influenced a variety of musicians, including the Beatles, John Coltrane, Philip Glass and his daughters, Norah Jones and Anoushka Shankar," it said. "A humanitarian and philanthropist, in 1971 Shankar, along with George Harrison, organised the Concert for Bangladesh, which paved the way for many other fundraising charity concerts," it said.

Other recipients of this year's lifetime achievement Grammy awards are Glenn Gould, Charlie Haden, Lightnin' Hopkins, Carole King, Patti Page and the Temptations.

(For updates you can share with your friends, follow IBNLive on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest)