Ragas Live Festival

Color your mind at Ragas Live Festival, a 24-hour celebration of Indian classical music. Experience the innovations of New York City’s current “raga renaissance” as over fifty master musicians—and an enthusiastic audience—take over the Museum for an overnight concert of sacred sounds.

Ragas, with roots in the vedas, are designed to be played at specific times of day: as the earth rotates, the music harmonizes with changes in light and mood, potentially transforming the listener’s consciousness. At Ragas Live Festival, you’ll hear evening ragas as night falls and witness the sunrise to music that evokes the early morning. Throughout the experience you can enjoy this timeless music as you peruse the Rubin Museum’s collection of Himalayan art and exhibitions such as The World Is Sound.

Learn more about ragas.

Produced for six years by the podcast NYC Radio Live and hosted at the Rubin for the first time, Ragas Live Festival is an immersive 24-hour global listening experience. A worldwide audience will share the experience in real time via a live radio broadcast on WKCR FM-NY. As the world tunes in, you’ll tune your mind to access different states of consciousness—this is what the music is created for. Join us for an incredible journey!

Enjoy mango lassis, tapas, and cocktails available for purchase from Café Serai, which will be open late into the night and in the early morning. There will also be pop-up events throughout the museum, including meditation and traditional Hindu sunrise puja (prayer).

Presented by the Rubin Museum of Art, Ragas Live Festival: 24 Hours of Sacred Sound is curated by NYC Radio Live and sponsored by a Humanities New York Action Grant with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Full Schedule

LATE MORNING

The festival commences with one of the greatest living South Indian percussionists, V. Selvaganesh, who, like his father, is known for his work with John McLaughlin’s Shakti. Next, the fiery Hindustani sitarist Indro Roy Chowdhury performs. We then return to South, with the nine vocalists of Navatman Music Collective (one of the only Carnatic choirs in the world) singing ancient South Indian compositions.

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

AFTERNOON

The afternoon is invoked by a maestro traveling from Varanasi, Pandit Rabindra Narayan Goswami. Then we hear cutting-edge jazz, classical and new music from Woven by Anjna Swaminathan. Max ZT and Jay Gandhi give a tribute to their teachers, Shivkumar Sharma and Hariprasad Chaurasia and their beloved album “Call of the Valley.”

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)

SUNSET

As late afternoon leads towards evening, the transcendent singing of Benares/Jaipur vocalist Falu manifests the mood to match the time. The Carnatic/Western violin duo of Arun Ramamurthy & Trina Basu create original works and explore traditional and contemporary sounds. The brilliant sitarist Abhik Mukherjee paints a sonic sunset in resonance with the red sky.

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)

EVENING

We open the evening portion of the festival with the dazzling percussion duo of Samir and Dibyarka Chatterjee. The youngest son and disciple of Pt. Buddhadev Dasgupta, and an outstanding player in his own right, Anirban Dasgupta will then color our minds with the first moods of dusk on Sarod. Ganavya translates jazz standards to her native language of Tamil and recontextualizes Indian songs, showcasing her fluency in both jazz and Carnatic music.

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)

NIGHT

We go deep into the nighttime rasa, or mood, with two of the brightest stars in New York City: the young Hindustani maestros Samarth Nagarkar and Jay Gandhi, both known for their evocative performances and the depth of their understanding of raga.

10:00 PM Samarth Nagarkar (vocal), Shankh Lahiri (tabla), Rohan Prabhudesai (harmonium)

11:00 PM Jay Gandhi (Bansuri), Suryaksha Deshpande (tabla)

MIDNIGHT

At midnight we get our first taste of a traditional Carnatic ensemble and hear compositions that are hundreds of years old. Then Orakel, informed by the rhythms and melodies of West Africa, India, and the Middle East, create new sounds with, tabla, oud, electronics, and the kora, the 21- string West African harp.

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)

PRE-DAWN

During the darkest hours we present cutting-edge, cross-cultural and jazz explorations with The Epichorus, A Circle Has No Beginning by Sameer Gupta, Aakash Mittals Awaz Trio, and Aaron Shragge and Rez Abbasi’s duo. Returning to Hindustani music, Camila Celin then prepares us for the sunrise, performing a pre-dawn rasa on sarod.

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)

SUNRISE

We complete the cycle of time upstairs and witness the return of light as we hear morning ragas played by Eric Fraser with the rare gayaki-ang or “vocal style” style he is preserving on the bansuri. Deepal Chodhari then brings her magic touch on the 72-stringed santoor. The transcendent vocalist Mitali Bhawmik will close the 24-hour cycle.

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)