WEDNESDAY
In 1967, the Beatles journeyed to India to meet the Maharishi, but George Harrison found musical enlightenment in another guru, Ravi Shankar. Soon, the sitarist was turning American hippies on to the psychedelic drone of ragas at Woodstock and the Monterey Pop Festival. Though the Godfather of World Music’s pop moment may have passed, the 83-year-old Shankar has continued to tour and recordplucking, picking, and pulling the multiple strings on his long-necked instrument alongside various orchestras, such composers as Philip Glass, and, most recently, his daughter Anoushka Shankar. While the elder Shankar’s complex technique was employed by the quiet Beatle to liven up Western rock songs, Shankar has long preferred using it in the ancient, Hindu-temple-rooted form of North Indian classical music. He has explained the music’s connection with faith by stating that it’s a discipline used to blissfully experience “the revelation of the true meaning of the universe.” If that explanation is a bit heavy for some, the improvisationally bent notes Shankar rapidly plays in ascending and descending movements are impressive no matter their inspiration or goal. His protégée Anoushka (pictured with Ravi)Norah Jones’ half-sisterhas been playing in public since she was 13. Now in her early 20s, she is developing a slightly more rough-edged technique than her dad’s, but is still coming into her own style. The pair perform at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 1, in the Kennedy Center’s Concert Hall. $20-$65. (202) 467-4600. (Steve Kiviat)