We were honoured that genre-defying and award-winning artist Anoushka Shankar was the inaugural president of The F-List CIC. 

Anoushka Shankar said:

“I am delighted to represent this fantastically talented and committed community, who are passionate about creating opportunities for the great wealth of female talent that exists in the UK. The F-List is the first initiative of its kind to give female artists and musicians a platform where they can be discovered. Its breath-taking thoroughness and scope nullifies any excuses from people in the music industry who blame a lack of representation and diversity by saying there’s a dearth of women to hire. But it’s also a supportive network that can transform the music industry into a place that better represents, and reflects, the richness and diversity in British society.” 

British-Indian-American sitarist and composer Anoushka Shankar is a genre defying musician equally at ease in classical, contemporary, world, acoustic and electronic musical spheres.  Among her accolades are six Grammy
nominations, two Eastern Eye ACTA Awards and a Songlines Best Artist Award.  She began studying the sitar at the age of 9 under her father, the legendary Ravi Shankar,  and made her performing debut aged thirteen.  At fifteen she helped to conduct her father’s album Chants of India, produced by George Harrison. By 20, she had toured the world multiple times and made three solo albums of Indian classical music.

In 2005 Anoushka Shankar released her first self-composed, self-produced album Rise, beginning an ongoing journey of exploration and musical self discovery.  Further albums include the flamenco-sitar breakthrough Traveller (2011), Traces of You (2013), featuring her half-sister Norah Jones; the self assured return to Indian-classical music on Home (2015), and Land of Gold (2016), written in response to the global humanitarian refugee crisis. Earlier this year she released an internationally-acclaimed EP of intimate songs titled Love Letters.  She has showcased the versatility of her instrument in collaborations with diverse artists including Herbie Hancock, Joshua Bell, Patti Smith, Nitin Sawhney, Ibeyi, Sting and His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

More recently, Anoushka Shankar has turned her energy towards composing for film and television, commissioned by the British Film Institute to create a new score for the iconic 1928 classic silent film Shiraz, and co-composing
Mira Nair’s adaptation of A Suitable Boy for BBC1.