Ravi Shankar's Final Vision Launches Campaign on Kickstarter

Online, July 2, 2014 (Newswire.com) - Ravi Shankar was the legendary musician who brought Indian Classical music to the West. He was one of the best known artist of the sitar, and highly respected as a teacher. This respect was displayed by the fact that his name was typically preceded by the honorary term 'Pandit', which means "wise or learned man". Shankar rapidly became an international musical phenomenon, and much of the world began to listen to Indian Classical music. He was an influence on many leading musicians of the Twentieth Century including George Harrison, Yehudi Menuhin, Philip Glass and John Coltrane. The award winning Beatles song "Within You Without You" written by George Harrison, was influenced by Shankar's musical style.

With a long list of musical accomplishments behind him, Ravi Shankar had one final vision he longed to see become a reality. This dream was to create an opera that united the distinctive styles of eastern and western Indian music, the world's first East-West Opera. He wanted to display the depth of his culture's spirituality through the marriage of these two hemispheres within a single operatic opus called the "Sukanya". Sadly, the artist died in December 2012 before he could make his final musical masterpiece. However, all was not lost. Although Shankar died before he could realize his final vision, he did leave instructions for the opera's completion behind. With these final instructions in hand, a group of people who want to see this opera come to life have joined together in order to make it a reality. This team is comprised of: musical composer David Murphy, Shankar's wife Sukanya and daughter Anoushka, and author Amit Chaudhuri.

In order to raise the funds needed to make Ravi Shankar's "Sukanya", David Murphy has launched a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter. This campaign hopes to raise £30,000 by close of his campaign on July 14th, 2014. As an added incentive to encourage contributions, the campaign is offering several reward levels. These rewards range from a tweeted "thank you" to a photograph, orchestrating workshop or even a meal for four in London. Full details about the project can be found on the Kickstarter campaign page.

About David Murphy:
David Murphy is an orchestral/operatic conductor who has worked closely with Ravi Shankar since 2004. Pandit Ravi Shankar was central to his development as a musician. He was inspired by Shankar's " spontaneous creativity and the spiritual perspective of Indian music". David is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

To learn more about the Ravi Shankar's Final Vision crowdfunding project visit: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1834704827/ravi-shankars-final-vision-the-first-ever-east-wes

For more information about David Murphy: http://davidmurphyconducts.org

For more details about the Ravi Shankar Opera project: http://ravishankaroperaproject.org