Shivkumar Sharma

Through the Years

His 1967 album Call of the Valley, created with Hariprasad Chaurasia and Brij Bhushan Kabra, became one of Indian classical music’s most successful albums, blending the santoor with flute and guitar in a novel format.

Shivkumar Sharma’s father taught him vocals and tabla from age five but introduced him to the santoor at thirteen, aiming to expand the instrument’s classical potential beyond its folk origins.

The santoor was known in the Vedic period as Shatatantri Veena, meaning ‘100-wired instrument’, a historical detail Sharma often cited to connect his classical adaptation with ancient Indian music traditions.

Shivkumar Sharma redefined the santoor’s identity, elevating it from a regional folk instrument of Kashmir to a respected voice in Indian classical music, influencing music curricula and concert repertoires across India. His collaborative albums and film scores under the Shiv–Hari banner shaped the soundscape of 1980s and 1990s Hindi cinema, inspiring a generation of musicians to explore classical instruments in popular media.