Anupam Shobhakar

Anupam Shobhakar is an Indian musician, composer, instrumentalist and record producer based in Brooklyn, New York. Born in Kolkata and raised in Mumbai, he began on guitar playing rock and metal before returning to Indian classical music in his early teens, taking up the sarod after finding that no other instrument matched its microtonal subtleties.

His first teacher was Suresh Vyas, who drilled him in technical discipline. He later met Ustad Aashish Khan when the sarod master came to perform in Bombay and stayed at his apartment, and has studied with him ever since; Shobhakar cites Aashish Khan and Ustad Allauddin Khan as his main stylistic influences.

He recorded his first album, Mysterious Awakening, in 2004 for Saregama, followed by the world-fusion release Wine of the Mystic (2005) and the Indian classical album Dream Theory (2009). In 2013 he and American guitarist Joel Harrison released Leave the Door Open on Whirlwind Recordings. He now performs on a custom Kalima double-neck guitar and leads Liquid Reality, a contemporary Indian classical ensemble blending raga with jazz and contemporary harmony.

Shobhakar has played festivals including Canada's Vancouver Folk Festival, MTV's Independence Rock in India, Oman's Muscat Festival and Italy's Roma Rock, and has performed for charitable causes such as the YWCA India Concert for Peace for survivors of the Gujarat earthquake. He holds the title "Surmani" from Sursingar Samsad and a Best Young Artist award from the Priyadarshni Academy.