Shiv Kumar Sharma

Born	13th January 1938 in the State of Jammu & Kashmir
Origin	India, in the state of Jammu place known as Dogra
Genres	Indian Classical Music
Instruments	Santoor
Active Years	Present-1955
Associated Acts	Rahul Sharma
Online	www.santoor.com

 

In the year 1938 in the month of January 13th Shivkumar Sharma was born who is a great Indian Player of Santoor. Santoor is basically a folk musical instrument belongs to Jammu and Kashmir. He was also known as Pandit.

His mother was Uma Dutt Sharma and mother tongue is known as Dogri. In the year 1999 with an interview to rediff.com, he explained that his father provided him training at the age of 5 only with the musical instruments known as table and vocals. However, extensive research work was done by Uma Dutt Sharma for the musical instrument known as Santoor. She took a decision that Shivkumar will be the first person in order to play Classical Music on the instrument known as Santoor. This is the reason why he started learning Santoor when he was only 13 in his age. The dream day was come when he performed for the first time in the year 1955 in Bombay.

Career

Credit is provided to Shivkumar as he put Santoor in the right place in Indian Classical Music he also practiced a vocalist for few years. In the year 1999 when an interview was taken by rediff.com in his interview he said that his father was the person who decided that his son will play Santoor but he was never confident that he will choose this instrument at the time when he started his schooling in music. In films also he had provided background music such as in Shantaram’s Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baje in the year 1956. In the year 1960 solo album was also recorded.

In the year 1967, he had made a team combing Brij Bhushan Kabra and Hariprasad Chaurasia in order to develop concept album known as Call of the Valley in the year 1967 and this album had become as one of biggest hits in Classical Music. Many Hindi Films were also composed by him such as Silsila in the year 1980. Another films composed by them are Darr in 1993, Lamhe in 1991, Chandni in 1989 and Faasle in 1985. He had become famous for music duo known as ‘Shiv-Hari’.

Awards

Many international and national awards were received by Shivkumar. Honorary citizenship was provided by USA in the year 1985. In the year 1986 Sangeet Natak Akademi award was given to him. Padma Shri was given in the year 1991 and Padma Vibhushan in the year 2001.

Awards (Film and Classical)

• Had got Platinum Disc for his album Call of the Valley
• Had got Platinum Disc award for composing music in film Silsila
• Had got Gold Disc for music in the film Faasle
• Had got Platinum Disc for music in film Chandni
• Had got Special Award for composing outstanding music and sale of film Lamhe
• Honored with Outstanding Music Special Award which was  provided for the flim ‘Darr’