Gingger Shankar

Gingger, an extraordinary gifted virtuoso violinist, singer and songwriter, has been touring all over the world for the past eight years as a member of the pop duo Shankar & Gingger, and as a solo and guest performer in many shows, winning over fans and critics alike. She has also lent her voice, violin and compositions to several album projects.

Born in Los Angeles, Gingger spent her beginnings studying within one of India's most acclaimed musical families. Her initial training began with her mother, an accomplished singer, who toured the world and won many awards as a classical star. She began teaching Gingger from the time she was a baby. Between the coaching from her mother and grandfather (violin), and her extensive training in classical Indian violin, opera, western classical music, piano, pop and world music, Gingger has developed a musical style all her own, yet one that encompasses all of these genres and creative experiences.

She trained in Indian Classical and Western Classical voice, and violin from the age of two. She started learning piano at about eight, which she loved, but the only bad thing was that she could hear something and play it by memory, so she always used to trick her piano teacher into thinking that she was reading the music. That made her lazy about reading piano music, but she did learn piano for five or six years. Gingger has explained, “It is very useful to me in my songwriting process. I also took opera voice lessons which I loved. I loved learning operatic arias, I love singing as high as I possibly can and seeing how far my voice can go.”


Gingger: I was born and raised in Los Angeles. Most of my family are musicians. We have musicians, writers and artists in our family. My mother was a singer, my grandfather was a violinist, that is where my initial training began as a child. I was taught at a very early age that music was an integral part of my life. I grew up thinking that it was so normal to play music, write music. I have been to concerts since I was a baby, music has surrounded me all of my life.

Even though her early years were based on Western classical and Indian classical training, she started involving herself in piano, opera and pop music training as well. She always listened to the Beatles, Bach, Beethoven, Elton John, Stevie Nicks, Stevie Wonder, and many others. Her mother made sure she was always exposed to all musical styles; the Hollywood Bowl one night, and an Indian concert the next. She has always incorporated all these styles into my art. That is why she has been involved with world music as well as pop/rock.

Gingger makes it clear that her earliest influence was her Mother. She also has been influenced by the compositions of Bach and Beethoven, the songwriting John Lennon, the greatest violinist, Jascha Heifetz; Ray Charles, Karen Carpenter, Diana Ross, The Rolling Stones and Carlos Santana.

She listens to a wide range of musicians, everyone from Beatles, Elvis and Frank Sinatra to Coldplay, Outkast, and Madonna. And she loves listening to Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday, especially when she needs some serious soul searching, “they can just rip your heart out!”