Named among the World Economic Forum's Young Global Leaders of 2008, UK-based Indian musician Anoushka Shankar was in Turkey over the weekend to perform for audiences in İstanbul at the Cemal Reşit Rey Concert Hall.

Accompanied by the other members of the Anoushka Shankar Project -- Tanmoy Bose on tabla, Ravichandra Kulur on flute, Leo Dombecki on piano and Barry Phillips on cello -- the daughter of renowned Indian sitar player Ravi Shankar presented her modern interpretation of the sitar.

Schooled in the tradition of Indian classical music, Shankar began learning how to play sitar at the age of 8 and gave her first public performance at 13. In an interview with Today's Zaman ahead of her weekend concert, the 28-year-old composer said her father has played a huge role in her development as a musician because he has been her only teacher when it comes to Indian music. "I learned Indian classical music and instruments from him. He is a huge influence on anyone who plays sitar, let alone when you are actually his student," she says, adding that she grew up hearing him play all the time.

Asked whether carrying her father's surname has been difficult for her musical career, she responds that it depends on one's perspective. "I can see it as a burden or I can see it as a blessing," she says, noting that she is quite comfortable with it. "Sometimes it is difficult when people possibly assume a lot about you. And I think that is very normal, human nature. I did my best to use the opportunity to have a teacher like him, and I worked really hard to build my career."

Delving very deeply into Indian classical music from the lessons she took from her father, she puts this tradition in a slightly different context with her current project. "I am doing this not necessarily changing it on purpose to make it modern or new, but just reinterpreting it, seeing all the ways in which it can be relevant to different cultures, to different people in different times," Shankar says, stressing that this seems to be a real reflection of human life and that many people in today's world live very multicultural lives. "Almost everything I do has strong Indian roots, all my music is based on Indian music, but it is just a new interpretation of it," she says, adding that in her recent project she works with players coming from different backgrounds, such as jazz, Western classical music and Indian traditional music.

She is also the first woman to receive a British House of Commons Shield, but she says titles are not the important thing. "The House of Commons Shield happened when I was 17 and I did not know what it meant at the time but, of course, it was an honor. But stuff like being named as one of the 20 Asian Heroes in Time magazine [in 2004] or being announced as a Young Global Leader comes with opportunities if you are willing to take them: networking, the opportunity to bring the messages you want to say across to people," the composer says, noting that it is nice to be in a situation where people care about your music and that she definitely tried to use that as an advantage.

As a musician from the East, Shankar is well appreciated in the West. When it comes to the primary differences between the two cultures, she says they are getting less and less every year. Having lived in the US when she was a teenager, she says: "The surprising thing [was that] all my friends in California were doing yoga, whereas my friends in India were DJs and clubbing until 7 in the morning. As far as more cliché things, the concept of family and hospitality is still very strong, as it used to be in the East. And in West the concept of individuality and free thinking is very beautiful. I think they both have a lot to learn from each other."

Shankar says there is a natural development toward overcoming polarization through music and culture. "Art always reflects the world we live in. In recent years people have changed; they are more and more open to other people. So music does that, too," she says, also emphasizing that this kind of development has to happen consciously. "People should make these efforts to hold onto their roots, their knowledge of the things in past and also carry it to the newcomers. I also want to able to carry them to my children, I would not want to get them lost," she explains, adding that there is no hurry to evolve toward being modern, as there is a lot of value in tradition, too.

Asked about the current state of affairs in ethnic music, she says it is difficult to speak about it globally since it is different everywhere. "Definitely in the West there has been a very strong interest in world music and in different forms of ethnic music," she says, adding that she gets a little frustrated when world music gets blocked together in an oversimplified manner. "Because it's so rich and diverse. And ultimately, that concept of world music, what does it mean? But when it comes with actual curiosity, it's very beneficial."

Shankar has worked on numerous collaborations with famous figures, such as Sting and her half-sister, Grammy Award-winning jazz singer Norah Jones. She says while interacting with other musicians it is important to have an open ear, especially when they come from different styles. "There's a lot of value in watching how people work. So there's definitely been situations where someone like Sting, not when he was recording for us but when I was recording for him … would want me to approach my instrument in a different way," she says, adding that she may have studied for years, but she learns new things in such moments.

This was her second time in İstanbul, and Shankar says she had an amazing time when she first visited to play at a concert with her father. "[It is] one of the most beautiful cities I have ever seen. But, unfortunately, this time we have been rehearsing so I was not able to enjoy it much. But I love the food and the people seem so friendly. İstanbul is perfectly representative of what we are trying to be, it is beautiful."