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Rishab Rikhiram Sharma to go global with tour: Want to use my sitar to make more noise about mental health
New York-based sitar player Rishab Rikhiram Sharma, the last disciple of late sitar virtuoso Pandit Ravi Shankar, talks about taking his tour global
New York-based sitar player Rishab Rikhiram Sharma, the last disciple of late sitar virtuoso Pandit Ravi Shankar, is working on going global with his tour where he presents his music notes to strike conversations around mental health. He says he is dedicated towards normalising the conversation through music.
“I started playing sitar for mental health during the pandemic to sort of provide people with some form of musical healing that I had experienced, you know, after I lost my grandfather. In 2020, I gave up playing Sitar and I fell into depression. And I was going through a lot of anxiety at that time. And it was only through the combination of counseling and music that I was able to cope with it,” Sharma tells us, further adding that he used social media as an outlet to share his music and letting his emotions flow through that media.
“And in that process, I was sort of healing myself, but also people were listening to me and enjoying the music, really resonating with the music and in that process, they were also sort of healing themselves. So I wanted to like present what I was feeling to other people. And that was the idea behind it. And then which snowballed into this huge community, where like-minded people would come along, talking about music and mental health... We can talk about mental health because I think that’s the only way you can destigmatize it and normalize talking about mental health through conversation and open dialogue,” he elaborates.
Opening up about what compelled him to share his story, he tells us, “I thought how can I use my voice which is my sitar to make more noise about mental health. Of course, we’re trying to promote Indian classical music as a coping mechanism for people to uplift themselves. But in no way, definitely in severe cases, you definitely should reach out for professional help. Music alone would not make you feel better.”
“But in some milder cases, it definitely does. If you’re having a bad day, if you put on some music especially listen to a raga, top to bottom, you will feel better if you create the right environment. That’s something that has that’s a testament by a huge number of people. But how can people normalise talking about mental health is just talking about mental health and share their own struggles. That’s how we would destigmatize talking about mental health. You just have to be the change you want to see in society,” adds the sitarist, who performed at White House sometime back.
After his India tour, Sharma, who is a sitarist, music producer and composer born in Delhi to the renowned Rikhi Ram family of luthiers, is going global.
“I have set aside everything and I am just focusing on Sitar for Mental Health. We are going global with it. We have planned a few shows in Europe. We are doing another show in London in June. We have a full fall tour of US planned up. We are going to Canada as well. We are also playing at the Bahamas very soon. Then the next year I am going to be back to India again. We are going to do something different this time. Aside from that, I also have a tape coming by the name of Sitar for Mental Health Tape which is going to consist of 5 ragas. 5 very traditional ragas produced in a very modern way,” he says.
