The Society for Indian Tradition and Arts, SITAR, is renowned for its cultural activities and for bringing a bit of India to Iowa State.

This year, in conjunction with its spring concert, SITAR has invited Indian musician Shivkumar Sharma to perform in a Hindustani classical concert.

“Pandit Sharma is perhaps the most well-known santoor player in India today,” Rohini Ramaswami, president of SITAR, said. “He is recognized for popularizing the santoor and introducing it into Indian classical music.”

Sharma and his group are currently touring the US, Ramaswami said.

“We found out that he would be on tour in the US, so we contacted his national sponsors and asked him to come,” she said.

The santoor is the oldest known string instrument of India. Pandit Sharma’s santoor has 87 strings that run across a rectangular box made of walnut wood. By striking the strings with wooden mallets, he manages to produce a variety of sounds in three octaves.

He is also being accompanied by his son, Rahul Sharma, who will play a separate santoor, and Shafaat Ahmed Khan, who will be playing the tabla.

The tabla are the two drums that are played as accompaniment to North Indian or Hindustani music.

“There are two styles of classical Indian music — Hindustani and Carnatic — and both focus on the melody structure, or the raga, and the rhythmic cycle, or tala,” Ramaswami said.

“Most musicians in the Hindustani style usually play one or two elaborate pieces, and then finish up with smaller pieces,” she added. “Most ragas that are played are associated with a certain kind of mood, and hence, a certain kind of day and time.”

Sharma, along with Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia, has produced musical scores for several notable Indian films, including director Yash Chopra’s famous film “Silsila.”

He has also received several awards, including the Sangeet Natak Akademis Award and the Amir Khusro Society of Americas Award for his contribution to Indian classical music.

“SITAR tries to do at least two concerts a year — one in the spring and one in the fall,” Ramaswami said. “This one we sponsored completely by ourselves.”

The organization is excited and enthusiastic about Pandit Sharma’s upcoming concert, she said. And they are not the only ones.

“Attendance at our concerts usually fluctuates depending on the artist and the style of music, but we usually have a good turnout at most of our concerts,” Ramaswami said. “And with an artist as big as he is, we are expecting this concert to be well-attended, with a substantial number of people coming from out of town.”

The concert will be held on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at Fisher Theater.

Tickets are $7 and $9 for students and $15 and $19 for the general public and are available at the Iowa State Center box office or through Rohini Ramaswami (292-4799).

Tickets can also be purchased at the door.