Ragas Live Festival

“24 hours of uninterrupted, absolutely incredible music performances”

- Jason Mantzoukas in the New York Times

Inspired by the time specific nature of raga, where certain modes are only invoked to match the mood of specific times of day, the Ragas Live Festival is BRM’s 24-hour marathon celebration of raga music in all its forms alongside traditions from every corner of the globe.

Since 2012, the Ragas Live Festival has expanded the audience and presentation of raga, South Asia’s epic, classical music form. Inspired by the time specific nature of raga, where certain modes are only invoked to match the mood of specific times of day, Ragas Live first broke new ground in 2012 when BRM co-founder, musician and radio host David Ellenbogen gathered a community of 50 musicians to collaborate for a 24 hour radio broadcast on WKCR 89.9 FM-NY, the first of its kind, even in India.

In 2016, the festival graduated from the radio studio and was broadcast remotely in front of an enthusiastic audience at Pioneer Works, a 25,000 square foot experimental arts venue in Red Hook, Brooklyn. In 2017, Ragas Live was held at The Rubin Museum of Art for 24 Hours of Sacred Sound complete with sunrise prayer and meditation. Check out our Ragas Live Retrospective album covering music from 2011-2017 here. In 2020, the festival again broke new ground during the height of the pandemic lockdowns, when it broadcast a 24 video livestream from 15 cities and 9 countries. This iteration of the festival featured 90 musicians, including many legends of music such as Toumani Daibate (from Côte D’Ivoire), Zakir Hussain (from SF Jazz), Betsayda Machado (from Venezuela), and the legendary composer Terry Riley from Japan.

In 2022, Ragas Live featured transcendent performances by Parvathy Baul, a leading exponent of the mystical Baul sect of West Bengal, as well as the ecstatic trance music of Gnawa from Samir Langus. The evening also featured performances by Samarth Nagarkar and Vinay Desai, and ended with an improvisational set with Arun Ramamurthy Trio (ART).

This year, Ragas Live will take place at Pioneer Works from Oct 14-15.

Click here to buy tickets

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Ragas Live Festival is supported by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Brooklyn Arts Council. Brooklyn Arts Fund (DCLA) is sponsored, in part, by the Greater New York Arts Development Fund of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, administered by Brooklyn Arts Council.

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8:00 PM

Gaurav Mazumdar

Sitar Maestro - the legendary disciple of Ravi Shankar

9 :00 PM

Trina Basu & Arun Ramamurthy

Carnatic/Western violin duo

10:00 PM

Amirtha Kidambi, Qasim Naqvi & Rafiq Bhatia Trio

Experimental trio including Rafiq Bhatia of Son Lux, nominated this year for the Academy Award for the Everything Everywhere All at Once soundtrack

11:15 PM

Celebrating John McLaughlin & Mahavishnu

A mind blowing ensemble including Premik Russel Tubbs an original member of Mahavishnu Orchestra

12:30 AM

Mind Maintenance

Chad Taylor and Joshua Abrams of The Roots, Tortoise etc. on Sintir and Mbira

1:45 AM

Hindole Majumdar & Ayushman Majumdar

Tabla duo from one of the greats with his virtuoso son

2:45 AM

Mitali Banerjee Bhawmik

Sr. Hindustani Vocal Artiste with ensemble

4:15 AM

Quadrature

Jazz meets Raga led by Neel Murgai

5:30 AM

Suphala

The innovative tabla maestra disciple of Zakir Hussain

6:30 AM

Shakir Khan & Zakir Khan

From musical royal lineage, the Sitar Tabla duo

8:00 AM

Suhail Yusuf Khan & Henry Hodder

Meditative Sarangi /acoustic guitar duo

9:30 AM

Sougata Roy Chowdhury

NY Premier of Canada's Sarod Maestro

10:45 AM

Jay Gandhi, Abhik Mukherjee & Samarth Nagarkar

Bansuri, Sitar, Vocal Trio

12:15 PM

Ramakrishnan Murthy

Major Carnatic Vocalist and ensemble

1:30 PM

Supruli

Georgian Polyphonic Choir

2:30 PM

Kunal Gunjal & Suhail Yusuf Khan

Santoor and Sarangi duo - first ever presentation of these instruments together in the US

3:45 PM

Vicky Chow, David Cossin & Mark Stewart

Trio from the legendary ensemble Bang on a Can, performing music of Nik Bartch, Brian Eno and others.

5:00 PM

Akkarai Sisters

A stunning Carnatic Violin duo with ensemble

6:30 PM

Amir ElSaffar In E half-flat

Terry Riley wrote "In C" which launched the genre of minimalism in 1964. This will be premier of a new work created with Terry Riley's blessing for a large ensemble of microtonal maqam and raga instruments. It will be epic!

8:00 PM

Saraswati Ranganathan (Chicago, USA)

9 :00 PM

Roshni Samlal & Kane Mathis (New York, USA)

10:00 PM

Boundless by Sid Sriram (Chennai, India)

11:30 PM

Cyro Baptista + Friends featuring Tim Keiper and Brian Marsella (Brazil/New York)

12:30 AM

Manik Khan + Sudhakar Vaidyanathan (San Francisco, USA)

2:00 AM

Qasim Naqvi (New York, USA)

3:30 AM

Suhail Yusuf Khan (Connecticut, USA)

5:00 AM

Kroba (New York, USA)

6:30 AM

Samarth Nagarkar (New York, USA)

8:00 AM

Abhik Mukherjee (New York, USA)

9:30 AM

Jay Gandhi (New York, USA)

11:00 AM

Amir ElSaffar (New York, USA)

12:00 PM

Vinay Desai (New York, USA)

1:30 PM

Hamid Al Saadi (Iraq/New York)

2:30 PM

Samir Langus (Morocco/New York)

4:00 PM

Arun Ramamurthy Trio (New York, USA)

5:30 PM

Khadija El Warzazia’s Bnat El Houariyat with Esraa Warda (Morocco)

7:00 PM

Parvathy Baul (West Bengal, India)

Live

Jay Gandhi (bansuri), Abhik Mukherjee (sitar), and Vivek Pandya (tabla)

Brooklyn Raga Massive’s In D ft. Terry Riley

Innov Gnawa

Broadcast

Parvathy Baul (Bengal, India)

Fareed Ayaz & Abu Muhammad Qawaal (Karachi, Pakistan)

Debashish Bhattacharya (Calcutta, India)

Prahlad Tipanya (Madhya Pradesh, India)

Amir ElSaffar Two Rivers Ensemble (Rome, Italy)

Hidayat Khan (NJ, USA)

Sanika Kulkarni (Dheli, India)

Musekiwa Chingodza (Murehwa, Zimbabwe)

Iberi Choir (Georgia/Sakartvelo)

Samarth Nagarkar (NJ, USA)

Eric Fraser (NY, USA)

Saraswathi Ranganathan (Chicago, USA)

Indrajit Bannerjee & Shank Lahiri (Texas)

Rageshri Das (Benares, India)

Kroba (NY, USA)

Roopa Panesar (Leicster, UK)

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[Virtual edition]

7:00 PM

Raga Maqam: Amir ElSaffar & Brooklyn Raga Massive (Brooklyn, NY, USA)

8:00 PM

Dhun Dhora (featuring the Dhol Drummers of Rajasthan) (Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India)

9:00 PM

Andy Statman (Manhattan, NY, USA)

10:00 PM

Zakir Hussain (San Francisco, USA)

11:00 PM

Betsayda Machado y Parranda El Clavo (El Clavo, Venezuela)

12:00 AM

Alam Khan (San Rafael, USA)

1:00 AM

Swapan Chaudhuri & AACM Tabla Ensemble (San Rafael, USA)

2:00 AM

Krishna Bhatt (Brooklyn, NY, USA)

3:00 AM

Parvathy Baul (Kamardanga, West Bengal, India)

4:00 AM

Anantha Krishnan and Charumathi Raghuram (Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India)

5:00 AM

Flute Shashank (Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India)

6:00 AM

Gaurav Mazumdar (New Delhi, India)

7:00 AM

Womanly Voices (of Jodhpur RIFF) (Rajasthan, India)

8:00 AM

Roopa Mahadevan (Brooklyn, NY, USA)

9:00 AM

Ask Hafiz (Manhattan, NY, USA)

10:00 AM

Abhik Mukherjee & Samarth Nagarkar (Brooklyn, NY, USA)

11:00 AM

Mysore Nagaraj & Karthik Nagaraj (Mysore, Karnataka, India)

12:00 PM

3G feat T.H. Vikku Vinayakram & Selvaganesh (Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India)

1:00 PM

Prince Nepali (Kathmandu, Nepal)

2:00 PM

Toko Telo (Mangily, Madagascar)

3:00 PM

Toumani Diabate (Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire) & Derek Gripper (Cape Town, South Africa)

4:00 PM

Jay Gandhi & Arun Ramamurthy (Manhattan, NYC, USA)

5:00 PM

Brooklyn Raga Massive: In D (Manhattan, NYC, USA)

6:00 PM

Terry Riley (Nihon, Japan)

7:00 PM

Adam Rudolph's Moving Pictures ft. Adam Rudolph (compositions, handrumset, kongos, djembe, tarija, zabumba thumb pianos, sintir, multiphonic vocal, percussion, electronics), Marco Cappelli (electric guitar, electronics), Alexis Marcelo (fender rhodes, piano, percussion), Damon Banks (bass, electronics), Arun Ramamurthy (Carnatic Violin), and James Dellatacoma (live electronic processing)

8:00 PM

Arun Ramamurthy Trio ft. Arun Ramamurthy (violin), Perry Wormtan (bass), and Sameer Gupta (drums)

9:00 PM

Anirban Das Gupta (sarod) with Mir Naqibul Islam (tabla)

10:00 PM

V.Selvaganesh (percussion) with Swaminathan Selvaganesh (percussion)

11:00 PM

Soles of Duende: Brinda Guha, Arielle Rosales, and Amanda Castro (dancers)

12:00 AM

Saraswathi Ranganathan (Veena) with Raghavan Sai (mridangam)

1:00 AM

Rajna Swaminathan (mrudangam) and the Mangal Ensemble

2:00 AM

Dan Weiss (Drums)and Miles Okazaki (Guitar)

3:00 AM

Borogusakagu: Kaoru Watanabe (flute, percussion), Sameer Gupta (tablas, percussion), and Rogerio Boccato (percussion)

4:00 AM

Unstruck Sound: Aaron Shragge (Shakuhachi), Neel Murgai (overtone loops), David Ellenbogen (guitar, electronics), and Eric Fraser (bansuri)

5:00 AM

Namami Karmakar (vocal) with Anirban Chakravarty (harmonium), and Ehren Hanson (tabla)

6:00 AM

Shiv Subramaniam (vocal) with Neha Krishnamachary (violin) and Kavi Srinivasaraghavan (mridangam)

7:00 AM

Steve Gorn (bansuri), Eric Fraser (bansuri), and Shiva Ghoshal (tabla)

8:00 AM

Barun Kumar Pal (Indian slide guitar) with special guests

9:00 AM

Samarth Nagarkar (vocal) with Shankh Lahiri (tabla)

10:00 AM

T. Radhakrishna (sitar) and Shiva Ghoshal (tabla)

11:00 AM

Neel Murgai Ensemble: Neel Murgai (sitar), Arun Ramamurthy (violin), Trina Basu (violin), Marika Hughes (cello), and Sameer Gupta (tabla)12:00 PM Vinay Desai (santoor) and Vivek Pandya (tabla)

12:00 PM

3G feat T.H. Vikku Vinayakram & Selvaganesh (Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India)

1:00 PM

Crossroads: Jay Gandhi & Yacouba Sissoko ft. Yacouba Sissoko (kora, vocal), Jay Gandhi (bansuri,vocals), David Ellenbogen (guitar), and Ehren Hanson (tabla)

2:00 PM

Roopa in Flux: Roopa Mahadevan (vocals) and Guy Mintus (piano)

3:00 PM

Reggie Workman’s Cerebral Caverns: Reggie Workman (bass), Sameer Gupta (tabla/drumset), Pawan Benjamin (bansuri, shennai), and Mari Tanaka (tanpura)

4:00 PM

Abhik Mukherjee and Jay Gandhi ft. Abhik Mukherjee (sitar), Jay Gandhi (bansuri), and Shankh Lahiri (tabla)

5:00 PM

Anupama Bhagwat (sitar) and Nitin Mitta (tabla)

6:00 PM

Brooklyn Raga Massive: In "D" ft. Neel Murgai (composer, sitar), David Ellenbogen (composer, guitar), Lauren Crump (percussion), KG Westman (sitar), Galen Passan(sitar), Vin Scialla (sitar), Joshua Geisler (sitar), Ron McBee (percussion), Adam Maalouf (cello), Brian Shankar Adler (percussion), Kevin Nathaniel (percussion), Aaron Shragge (trumpet, shakuhachi), Avram Feffer (soprano sax, bass clarinet), Damon Banks (bass), Gwen Banks (violin), Pawan Benjamin (bansuri, shehnai), and Sita Chay (violin).

5:00 PM

Pradhanica Dance and Music Company ft. Jin Won (kathak), Michael Lukshis (tabla), Kaumil Shah (djembe), Vincent Pierce Smith (cajon), and Indro Roy Chowdhury (sitar)

6:00 PM

V.K. Raman (flute) with Arun Ramamurthy (violin) and Akshay Anantapadmanabhan (mridangam)

7:00 PM

Mitali Bhawmik (vocal) with Anirban Chakravarty (harmonium) and Dibyarka Chatterjee (tabla)

8:00 PM

Ganavya (voice) Rajna Swaminathan (mridangam) Max Ridley (bass) Charles Overton (harp)

9:00 PM

Karavika: Trina Basu (violin) Amali Premawardhana (cello) Perry Wortman (bass) Rajna Swaminathan (mridangam)

10:00 PM

Aditya Prakash (vocal) with Arun Ramamurthy (violin) and Abhinav Seetharaman (mridangam)

11:00 PM

Anirban Dasgupta (sarod) with Mir Naqibul Islam (tabla)

12:00 AM

Samarth Nagarkar (vocal) with Rohan Prabhudesai (harmonium) and Sandip Ghosh (tabla)

1:00 AM

House of Waters FT. Max ZT (dulcimer), Moto Fukushima (bass), AND Ignacio Rivas-Bixio (percussion)

2:00 AM

Arun Ramamurthy Trio FT. Arun Ramamurthy (violin), Perry Wortman (bass), and Sameer Gupta (drumset)

3:00 AM

Ross Hammond Trio w/special guests ft. Ross Hammond (guitar), Pawan Benjamin (saxophone/bansuri), Sameer Gupta (drums), Morgan Zwerlein (percussion), and Renald St. Juste (percussion)

4:00 AM

Unstruck Sound ft. Eric Fraser (bansuri), Neel Murgai (throat singing/daf/sitar/electronics), and Aaron Shragge (trumpet, shakuhachi, electronics)

5:00 AM

Steve Gorn (bansuri) with Shiva Ghoshal (tabla)

6:00 AM

Abhik Mukherjee (sitar) with Shiva Ghoshal (tabla)

7:00 AM

Jay Gandhi (bansuri) with Ehren Hanson (tabla)

8:00 AM

Andrew Shantz (vocal) with Roshni Samlal (tabla)

9:00 AM

Rajeswari Satish (vocal) with Radhika Mani (violin) and Bala Skandan (mridangam)

10:00 AM

Partha Bose (sitar) with Aditya Narayan Banerjee (tabla)

11:00 AM

Go: Organic Orchestra with Brooklyn Raga Massive ft. Arun Ramamurthy (violin), Jay Gandhi (bansuri), Neel Murgai (sitar), Charles Burnham (violin), Trina Basu (violin), Swaminathan Selvaganesh (kanjira), Sameer Gupta (tabla), David Ellenbogen (guitar), Mari Tanaka (tanpura), Michel Gentile (c and alto flute, bamboo flutes), Sylvain Leroux (tambin, flute, bamboo flutes), Ze Luis (c and alto flute, bamboo flutes), Steve Gorn (bansuri flute, hichiriki), Sean Sonderegger (contrabass clarinet), Sara Schoenbeck (bassoon, sona), Julianne Carney-Chung (violin), Sana Nagano (violin), Sarah Bernstein (violin), Richard Carr (violin), Stephanie Griffin (viola), Gwen Laster (viola), Jake Carkey (cello), Leco Reis (contrabass), Kenny Wessel (electric guitar), Damon Banks (electric bass), Dan Kurfirst (cajon, frame drums, percussion), Rogerio Boccato (pandero, zabumba, percussion), and Joe Hertenstein (tiny kit percussion)

12:00 PM

Navatman Music Collective & Bulgarian Voices Trio ft. Roopa Mahadevan, Preetha Raghu, Vlada Tomova, and Shelley Thomas (vocals)

1:00 PM

Falsa: Umer Piracha (vocals), Siddharth Ashokkumar (carnatic violin), Tom Deis (guitar/ harmonium), Paul Arendt (guitar/ harmonium), Adam Hershberger (trumpet), and Greg Foran (percussion)

2:00 PM

Suryaksha Deshpande (tabla) with Andrew Shantz (harmonium)

3:00 PM

Ritual Ensemble: Vijay Iyer (piano), Yosvany Terry (saxophone), Ganavya (vocals), and Rajna Swaminathan (mridangam)

4:00 PM

BRM Coltrane Raga Tribute ft. Sameer Gupta (drums), Jay Gandhi (bansuri), Trina Basu (violin), Arun Ramamurthy (violin), Brandee Younger (harp), Marc Cary (piano), Rashaan Carter (bass), Abhik Mukherjee (sitar), Pawan Benjamin (saxophone), and Mari Tanaka (tanpura)

10:00 AM

V. Selvaganesh (kanjira) with S. Swaminathan (percussion) and others

11:00 AM

Indro Roy Chowdhury (sitar), Suryaksha Deshpande (tabla)

12:00 PM

Navatman Music Collective: Roopa Mahadevan with Preetha Raghu, Shraddha Balasubramaniam, Parthiv Mohan, Kaushik Ravi, Shiv Subramaniam, Asha Unni (vocals), Anjna Swaminathan (violin), Rohan Krishnamurthy (mridangam)

1:00 PM

Rabindra Narayan Goswami (sitar), Ramu Pandit (tabla)

2:00 PM

WOVEN: Anjna Swaminathan (violin) with Stephan Crump (bass), Naseem Alatrash (cello)

3:00 PM

Recalling the Valley: Max ZT (hammered dulcimer), Jay Gandhi (bansuri), Ehren Hanson (tabla)

4:00 PM

Falu Shah (vocal), Sameer Gupta (tabla), Arun Ramamurthy (violin), Gaurav Shah (vocals, harmonium)

5:00 PM

Arun Ramamurthy (violin), Trina Basu (violin), Rich Stein (percussion), Michael Gam (bass)

6:00 PM

Abhik Mukherjee (sitar), Shankh Lahiri (tabla)

7:00 PM

Tabla Duet Samir Chatterjee & Dibyarka Chatterjee with Rohan Misra (sarangi)

8:00 PM

Anirban Dasgupta (sarod), Mir Naqibul Islam (tabla)

9:00 PM

Ganavya (vocals) with jazz ensemble: Utzav Lal (piano), Max Ridley (bass)

10:00 PM

Samarth Nagarkar (vocal), Shankh Lahiri (tabla), Rohan Prabhudesai (harmonium)

11:00 PM

Jay Gandhi (Bansuri), Suryaksha Deshpande (tabla)

12:00 AM

Vignesh Ishwar (Carnatic vocal), accompanied by L. Ramakrishnan (violin), Akshay Anantapadmanabhan (mridangam), KV Gopalakrishnan (kanjira)

1:00 AM

Orakel: Kane Mathis (kora, oud, electronics), Roshni Samlal (tabla)

2:00 AM

The Epichorus: (Priya Darshini (vocals), Zach Fredman (oud), Max ZT (hammered dulcimer)Rich Stein (percussion), Uri Sharlin (accordion)

3:00 AM

A Circle Has No Beginning by Sameer Gupta: Sameer Gupta (drumset, tabla), Marc Cary (piano), Neel Murgai (sitar), Rashaan Carter (bass), Jay Gandhi (bansuri), Arun Ramamurthy (violin), Marika Hughes (cello), Pawan Benjamin (saxophone)

4:00 AM

Aakash Mittal’s Awaz Trio: Aakash Mittal (saxophone), Alex Ritz (drums), Rez Abbasi (guitar)

5:00 AM

Aaron Shragge (dragon mouth trumpet, shakuhachi), Rez Abbasi (guitar)

6:00 AM

Camila Celin (sarod), Hiren Chate (tabla)

7:00 AM

Eric Fraser (bansuri), Ehren Hanson (tabla)

8:00 AM

Deepal Chodhari (santoor), Shiva Ghoshal (tabla)

9:00 AM

Mitali Bhawmik (vocal), Amod Dandawate (tabla), Sanatan Goswami (harmonium)

Brooklyn Raga Massive’s Ravi Shankar Tribute

Akshara

Arun Ramamurthy Trio

Dan Weiss Teen Taal Drumset Solo

Steven Dee Harris

Mitali Bhawmik

Neel Murgai

Vivek Pandya (Tabla Solo)

Roopa Mahadevan

Snehasish Mozumder

Krishna Bhatt

Jay Gandhi

Anupam Shobhakar

Max ZT Ensemble

Pradhanica

Orakel

Adam Maalouf Feat. Josh Geisler And Shiva Ghoshal

Deepal Chodhari

Samarth Nagarkar

Daisy Paradis

Sanghamitra Chatterjee

Steve Gorn And Eric Fraser

Sandip Bhattacharjee

Abhik Mukherjee

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