Santoor player and composer Pandit Shivkumar Sharma died at 84 due to a cardiac arrest on Tuesday. He was known for popularising the santoor, a folk instrument from Jammu that transformed into a classical Indian instrument due to Sharma’s contribution to the music industry.

Early life

Pandit Shivkumar Sharma was born on January 13, 1938, in Jammu to Uma Dutt Sharma, a renowned local singer. At the age of five, he learned the art of vocal training and playing the tabla from his father. 

He started learning santoor at the age of 13. Sharma made his debut in 1995 in the city of Mumbai by performing in front of a large audience.

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Career

In the year 1956, Pandit Shivkumar Sharma composed the background music for a scene in ‘Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baje’, a musical drama starring V. Shantaram, Gopi Krishna, Sandhya Shantaram and Madan Puri. 

Four years down the line, he released his debut solo album.

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In 1967, he collaborated with guitarist Brij Bhushan Kabra and flutist Hariprasad Chaurasia to release ‘Call of the Valley’, a light concept album containing 6 tracks that talk about an ordinary day for a shepherd in Kashmir. The album turned out to be a great success in the world of classical music.

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Sharma and Chaurasia rose to prominence and came to be known as the Shiv-Hari music duo.

Their music went on to feature in popular films like ‘Silsila’ (1981), ‘Darr’ (1993), ‘Lamhe’ (1991), ‘Faasle’ (1985) and ‘Chandni’ (1989).

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Familial life

Pandit Shivkumar Sharma tied the knot with Manorama. The couple welcomed two sons, Rahul and Rohit, into their family. Rahul Sharma began learning the santoor at the age of 13 and is now a renowned santoor player. The father-son duo performed at various shows all across the world since 1996. 

In 1999, Sharma revealed that he picked Rahul as his ‘shishya’ (disciple) because he believed that his son possessed a “gift of God”.