Harihar Rao

Who is Harihar Rao?

Harihar Rao was a noted Hindustani musician, noted for playing tabla and sitar. He was born into a prominent musical family in Mangalore, India, He moved to the United States in 1964, residing in Pasadena, CA, and became a U.S. citizen in 1969. He worked in the ethnomusicology department at UCLA and privately taught and mentored students of the sitar. In 1967, Rao published the book Introduction to Sitar, which sold more than 500 copies in its first two weeks of publication, and ultimately thousands of copies in four printings.

Rao was the longest-standing protégé and a close friend for more than six decades of sitar player Ravi Shankar.

In the 1960s, Rao was a Fulbright Scholar at UCLA. Rao and Shankar co-founded the Music Circle, an organization dedicated to promoting Indian classical music. He served as the Artistic Director of the Music Circle for 40 years.

Rao explored a variety of fusions of Indian and western music.