Leading Music Publisher Also Acquires the Legendary Indian Musician’s Archives Containing a Trove of Unreleased Recordings and Unpublished Compositions
Los Angeles, CA, Tuesday, March 28, 2023 —Wise Music Group, a leading international music publisher, has signed a co-publishing agreement with the estate of the Indian sitar virtuoso and composer Ravi Shankar. The publisher also acquires Ravi Shankar’s archives containing a wealth of unreleased recordings and unpublished compositions, along with the record label, East Meets West Music.
In his long creative life Shankar was a prolific composer writing traditional ragas, chamber works, concertos, symphonic scores, and film soundtracks. Included are 600 titles from Shankar’s Anourag Music Publishing, notably his famed scores for film director Satyajit Ray’s “Apu trilogy” and his landmark, Grammy-winning, 1967 collaboration with classical violinist Yehudi Menuhin.
The archives contain representations of numerous artists including Ravi’s daughters Anoushka Shankar and Norah Jones, as well as George Harrison, Herbie Hancock, Philip Glass, Zubin Mehta, Sting, Ray Charles, and Phil Collins, as well as legendary Indian collaborators Ali Akbar Khan and Alla Rakha.
The holdings comprise hand-engraved scores and handwritten compositions; more than 1,500 audio recordings; 2,100 video recordings; 600 films; over 5,000 photographs; 20 historically significant instruments custom-made for Shankar stage wardrobe, correspondence, posters, clippings, and awards.