DESI DIARY

RAGAS FESTIVAL LIVE

This year’s festival line-up includes Carnatic superstar Sid Sriram.

Ragas Live Festival is back to their 24-hour format after staging one of the most successful virtual festivals of the pandemic era.

It takes place October 22-23 at Pioneer Works in Brooklyn.

A 24-hour celebration of transcendent, spiritual music, the Ragas Live Festival is rooted in South Asia’s classical music, raga, which is unique in that specific modes are only played at specific times during the day. This year’s festival includes Carnatic superstar Sid Sriram; the New York premiere of Parvathy Baul, a leading exponent of the mystical Baul sect of West Bengal; Brazilian percussion legend Cyro Baptista; and master of the Iraqi maqam, Hamid AlSaadi.

Late night there will be analog synth explorations from both Qasim Naqvi and Kroba, and a tribute to Ali Akbar Khan on his 100th centennial featuring his son Manik Khan on sarod. The Arun Ramamurthy Trio will improvise Carnatic music in the context of a jazz trio.

Over the 24 hour period, the audience will also be treated to masters of the sitar, veena, bansuri, sarangi and vocal in the classical raga tradition including a sunrise set from Samarth Nagarkar and a sunset tribute to Shivkumar Sharma with Vinay Desai on santoor.

The full line-up is listed here.