“I think sometimes when you speak about something like 'Indian classical music' and 'ragas,' and all of that's new to people, it can be quite intimidating, in the same way that I have sometimes found opera and Wagner intimidating - one doesn't know where to begin sometimes.”

British-American sitar player and musician, born 1981

Anoushka Shankar is a British-American sitar player and musician, with work as an occasional writer and actress. Born in 1981, she has built a career that spans classical and contemporary music, and both acoustic and electronic settings. She began releasing solo studio albums with Anoushka in 1998 and has since issued seven in all. She has also collaborated with a range of musicians, including Karsh Kale on Breathing Under Water in 2007 and her father, Ravi Shankar. Her career has brought her 14 Grammy Award nominations, and she was the first musician of Indian origin to perform live at the ceremony and to serve as a presenter there.