Shivkumar Sharma

Shivkumar Sharma was born in Jammu into a musical family and was instructed by his father, Pandit Uma Dutt Sharma, to adapt the hundred-stringed trapezoidal santoor—traditionally used only as an accompaniment to Kashmiri Sufiana music—for Hindustani classical ragas. Modifying the tuning, bridge arrangement, and striking mallet techniques to produce meend (gliding notes), he gave his first classical concert in Bombay in 1955 despite skepticism from traditionalists.

Sharma's persistence established the santoor as one of the most sublime and recognized instruments in world classical music. In 1967, he recorded the watershed concept album Call of the Valley with flautist Hariprasad Chaurasia and guitarist Brij Bhushan Kabra. Together as "Shiv-Hari", Sharma and Chaurasia composed timeless, lush soundtrack scores for Yash Chopra's romantic films Silsila (1981), Chandni (1989), Lamhe (1991), and Darr (1993). He received the Padma Vibhushan in 2001.