1938年，Shivkumar Sharma出生于印度最北端克什米尔的Jammu地区。他原本学习的是古典声乐和tabla，但据说其父认定自己的儿子天赋异禀，必能开创santoor音乐的新格局。于是在这位先见之人的执意要求下，Shivkumar Sharma从13岁开始学习santoor。1955年，他初次登台表演。之后，经过10余年的探索，Shivkumar Sharma发展出一整套用于表现北印度古典音乐的演奏技巧，使santoor的古稀之音焕发出蓬勃的生命力。1967年，由他构思并主创的北印度古典音乐组曲《call of the valley》大获成功。这张犹如克什米尔风情画般优雅的唱片，至今仍是最畅销的印度古典音乐录音之一。1968年，Shivkumar Sharma参与了beatles吉他手george harrison制作的电影配乐《wonder wall》。从此，Shivkumar Sharma逐渐步入北印度古典音乐领域中最顶尖的行列。 　　20世纪70年代后期到整个80年代，Shivkumar Sharma在欧美很多地方进行了巡演和录音。1983年，OCORA出版了他的唱片。同年6月10日，Shivkumar Sharma在伦敦演出。后来这次演出的实况录音成了经典——即这套由navras出的唱片。唱片后来又以CD形式出版，共分两卷，是Shivkumar Sharma演奏生涯盛期的最佳瞬间之一。  
by Ken Hunt
Shivkumar Sharma is one of the truly great visionaries in the Hindustani classical music firmament. His popularity has created a knotty problem for his admirers. Popularity has led to a demand for recordings by him, to a degree that having a Shivkumar Sharma album acts like a kind of validation for a label. Consequently the market is flooded with his recordings. His playing is consummate, therefore he is unlikely to produce a piece of work that is below par, which makes selecting a shortlist even more difficult.
Sharmas story is one of dedication. He was born in January 1938 in Jammu Kashmir. His father Uma Dutt Sharma asked him to pursue the development of the Kashmiri santoor. Being a dutiful son he obeyed and persevered despite private reservations. Though its Persian relative, the santur, had associations with Persian and Iranian classical music, elevating the Indian instrument to the classical concert platform was widely viewed as folly in conservative quarters. But Shivkumar Sharma persisted, experimented, restrung and reconfigured his instrument. His first major santoor recital took place in Bombay in February 1955, but it took, he reckons, until the 1970s to finally silence the querulous, the die-hard connoisseurs of the music, musicologists and purists. Parallel with his development of the santoor he worked as a tabla player (he accompanied acts as diverse as the renowned Punjabi folksinger Surinder Kaur and sitar maestro Ravi Shankar), and his understanding of tabla playing and rhythm has immeasurably enhanced his performance style and stagecraft.