Gingger Shankar, composer, producer, songwriter, and the only female double violinist in the world, will perform a new original song “Promises of Our Grandmothers” at the Nobel Prize Summit on Monday, April 26 at 12:40pm PT / 3:40pm ET.
“Promises of Our Grandmothers,” which opens with the voices of 100 women from around the world, features Shankar with an incredible lineup of musicians including Iranian composer, vocalist, performance artist and activist Sussan Deyhim (vocals), Las Cafeteras member Daniel French (jarana segunda, vocals), Los Angeles-based drummer, singer and performer Mona Tavakoli (cajon), PitchBlak Brass Band member Chanell Crichlow (flugelhorn and flugelbone), Richard Horowitz (piano), Robert Glasper collaborator Jahi Lake (electronics), String Theory member Luke Rothschild (upright bass), John Wentz (sousaphone), Janani Shankar (vocals) and three-time Emmy award winner Vivek Maddala (guitar, drums, charango).
The song was written as a tribute to the women on the front lines of environmental movements around the world. It is introduced by Tara Houska (Couchiching First Nation), a tribal attorney, land defender, and a former advisor on Native American affairs to Bernie Sanders who filmed her introduction at the Capitol before testifying in front of the House Oversight Committee alongside Greta Thunberg about the harms of fossil fuel subsidies.
Conceived by Shankar and French during the height of the pandemic, the song is sung in English, Spanish, Farsi, and Mohawk. In it, Shankar honors women across all generations who are the backbone of the planet and how these unsung heroes need to be explored to come back to our traditions.
The Nobel Prize Summit will be held from April 26th-28th and features speakers Sir David Attenborough, Al Gore, Dr. Anthony Fauci, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet, Xiye Bastida, and many more incredible minds.
You can register to watch the event for free here: https://www.nobelprize.org/events/nobel-prize-summit/2021
In addition to the song performance, Shankar will participate in Dynamic Dialogues (Monday, April 26 at 8:15am PT / 11:15am ET), a fast-paced, interactive exchange centered around the Summit’s core topics. Shankar will participate in the Human Rights discussion alongside Nobel Prize laureate, Professor of Biology, Columbia University Martin Chalfie, independent science and policy facilitator Connie Nshemereirwe, and peacebuilding advocate Gatwal Augustine Gatkuoth.
The first Nobel Prize Summit brings together Nobel Prize laureates, scientists, policy makers, business leaders, and youth leaders to explore the question: What can be achieved in this decade to put the world on a path to a more sustainable, more prosperous future for all of humanity?
Across three days, the virtual event will combine keynotes and lively discussion with live performance and theatre. Speakers will explore solutions to some of humanity’s greatest challenges: climate change and biodiversity loss, increasing inequality, and technological innovation in support of societal goals.
The summit will ask: what can we learn from our collective response to the global pandemic? And, how can societies distinguish facts from fiction in a new information ecosystem?
The Nobel Prize Summit is hosted by the Nobel Foundation and organized by the US National Academy of Sciences in partnership with the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and the Stockholm Resilience Centre/Beijer Institute.
Join the conversation at #NobelPrizeSummit
About Gingger Shankar:
Gingger Shankar is a director, composer, producer, songwriter, and the only female double violinist in the world. As a Sundance and WIRED fellow and a speaker for TED, Davos, and the Cartier Women’s Initiative championing girls’ education and empowerment, she has worked with visionary women in media such as First Lady Michelle Obama, Ava DuVernay, Stacey Abrams, and more. She was the first Indian woman on the Sundance Artist board (with Rashida Jones and Mark Ruffalo), as well as the first Indian American composer invited to AMPAS/The Academy. She has worked with The Smashing Pumpkins, Aloe Blacc, Sheila E., Trent Reznor, Saul Williams, Peter Gabriel, Katy Perry, Mike Nichols, and James Newton Howard. Credits include The Passion of the Christ, Charlie Wilson’s War, The Radical Monarchs, Heartbeats (w/ Roc Nation), Brave Girl Rising starring Tessa Thompson, and the Amazon series The Last Hour. In 2011, she was chosen as one of Filmmaker Magazine’s ‘25 New Faces to Watch’ and her multimedia project ‘Himalaya Song’ (on climate change) was named one of the ’10 Best Music Films at Sundance’ by Rolling Stone. Gingger founded Little Girl and the Robot, a creative music house focusing on women composers and hosts a program connecting women music creatives to industry executives. She is currently developing Nari, the unsung story of the women of the Shankar family, her grandmother and mother, two extraordinary artists who helped bring Indian music to the West in the 1970s with Ravi Shankar and George Harrison.
About Daniel French, MFA (Mohawk / Raramuri):
@frenchismexican
Born & raised in L.A.’s San Gabriel Valley, Daniel works as a composer, producer, MC, touring musician & founding member of LA band Las Cafeteras. He’s currently working on a new album. And when not scouring the city’s best taco spots he’s cooking up musical ways to transform the world! His music’s been featured in series on Netflix, Starz, & CNN including Kamau Bell’s United Shades of America, Party of Five, & Bajo El Mismo Cielo. #MusicIsMedicine
About Sussan Deyhim:
Sussan Deyhim is an Iranian American composer, vocalist, performance artist, activist, and “one of Iran’s most potent voices in exile” (LA Times) In 1980, she moved to New York embarking on a multifaceted career encompassing music, theatre, dance, media, and film. Her work has been presented at The Carnegie Hall, BAM, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Royce Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Royal Albert Hall, The Wallis, and The Broad Museum. Sussan’s wide-ranging collaborations include Ornette Coleman, Bobby McFerrin, Peter Gabriel, U2, Rufus Wainwright, Richard Horowitz and Bang on a Can. Deyhim’s vocals can be heard on numerous soundtracks, including the Oscar-nominated motion pictures Argo, The Last Temptation of Christ, The Kite Runner, and Any Given Sunday, among others. Deyhim has also collaborated with acclaimed Iranian visual artist and filmmaker Shirin Neshat as a composer and performance artist. Their collaboration “Turbulent” was the winner of the Golden Lion at The Venice Biennial.
About Tara Houska:
Tara Houska (Couchiching First Nation Anishinaabe) is a tribal attorney, founder of Giniw Collective, and a former advisor on Native American affairs to Bernie Sanders. She spent six months on the frontlines fighting the Dakota Access Pipeline, and is currently engaged in the movement to defund fossil fuels and a years-long struggle against Enbridge’s Line 3 pipeline. She is a co-founder of Not Your Mascots, a group committed to positive representation of Native peoples.
