Shankar Tucker: In music, talent matters much

 Shankar Tucker is an American clarinettist and music composer. He rose to fame with the popularity of his online music series called The Shruti Box, which features his compositions. The Shruti Box was released online on platforms like YouTube and Soundcloud.

Shankar graduated from New England Conservatory in Boston, where he studied orchestral clarinet performance.

In conversation with Shankar  Tucker...

On Indian connection

I would say that Western music is often rigid, especially the classical traditions. Classical music is extremely rigid in the West. Indian classical music has built into it a kind of inherent improvisation. North Indian music and South Indian music absorb different influences like instruments such as violin, introduced here by the British during their rule. I have been completely taken by classical, traditional music. Western classical music is exactly the same as during the time of Beethoven.

On education

Education is learning and building your skills. For the world, when it comes to music, I am afraid institutional education, in a way, can take you to a point, but it can’t take you all the way in the same way medicine or other career paths can. In music, you feel like an entrepreneur. You have to consider yourself like a startup company or like a brand and you can’t depend on any sort of resume or piece of paper to help you with that. So it’s about skill – whether you learn from somebody else or teach yourself through hard work.

On student life

I graduated from New England Conservatory in Boston. As a student, I tried avoiding all sort of troubles. As I mentioned earlier, the tradition of Western music is very rigid.  When I was getting into Indian music, people, including my teachers, thought I was pretty weird. 

PC: shankartucker.com

The article first appeared in the 2013 December issue of Eduation Insider magazine