Ragini Shankar

She began her training at the age of 4 and gave her first public performance as an 11-year-old.[5] She plays violin in the Gayaki Ang, a revolutionary technique to reproduce vocal music on the violin.

Shankar excelled in her education in mechanical engineering and also holds a master's degree in music.[6]

She has performed in various prestigious festivals like the Europalia,[7] MERU, Netherlands,[8][9] Sawai Gandharva Bhimsen Festival,[10] Dover Lane Music Conference,[11] Saptak Festival of Music,[12] Theatre de la Ville, Paris,[13] Theatre de l'Alhambra, Geneva, Switzerland,[14] MilapFest,[15] Yaksha (festival),[16] Aarohi for Pancham Nishad,[17] Jaya Smriti organised by Hema Malini,[18] Temple of Fine Arts,[19] Bengal Music Foundation.[20]

She has performed in several countries abroad; the USA,[21] Canada,[22] UK,[23] Netherlands,[8] Switzerland, [24] Germany, France,[25] Belgium,[26] Hungary, Singapore,[27] Malaysia and Dubai.[28] Ragini gives lecture demonstrations and conducts workshops on a regular basis during her travels.

She is known for her collaborations with various artists in diverse genres. Ragini and her sister Nandini Shankar have been signed by Decca Records US, a part of Universal Music Group for a full-length music album for their musical ensemble ‘Taraana’.[29][30] She is a part of the renowned Bollywood lyricist Irshad Kamil’s The Ink Band, a series of poetry interwoven with music.[31][32] She is also a part of an Indo-French musical project called Sangata, formed by the noted French composer Thierry Pecou[33] and was covered in an article in Le Monde.[34] Her recent collaborations include inStrings, an innovative fusion band, giving a new sound to popular Indian tunes.[35]

Ragini is a recipient of the distinguished Aditya Birla Kala Kiran Award[36] and the Jashn-e-Youngistan [37] [38] Award presented by the Vice President of India. She was a faculty at Whistling Woods International School of Music in Mumbai for 6 years and currently teaches at the Rajam School of Violin.[39] She has appeared on the platform of Talks at Google[40] and Tedx[41] for her talks on Indian music.

She resides in Mumbai.

Aditya Birla Kala Kiran Award,presented by Rajashree Birla, 2019[42]

Jashn-e-Youngistan presented by the Vice-President of India, Venkaiah Naidu, 2018[43] [44]

Jaya Smriti presented by film actress and dancer, Hema Malini, 2012