Samir Shukla
The Ragas Live Festival will return as a 24-hour live event at Brooklyn’s Pioneer Works in October, after having presented one of the most ambitious and successful virtual events of the pandemic. Presented by Pioneer Works in collaboration with Brooklyn Raga Massive and the Society for Arts and Culture of South Asia, Ragas Live will take place from October 22 to October 23.
Featured artists will include Parvathy Baul, Hamid AlSaadi, Manik Khan, and Mysore Brothers. This will be a 24-hour celebration of transcendent, spiritual music. 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. The entire event will be broadcast on WKCR- FM, where it began as a 50 musician, in-studio broadcast in 2012.
The eclectic programming includes the New York premiere of the Baul performer Parvathy Baul, master of the Iraqi maqam Hamid AlSaadi, ambient modular synth explorations from Kroba and a tribute to Ali Akbar Khan on his 100th centennial featuring his son Manik Khan. At least a dozen more artists will also perform.
The live festival will take place within an immersive installation by film and video artist Charles Atlas, on a bespoke stage designed by artist Mika Tajima in collaboration with Chadha Ranch.
For full details, visit ragaslive.com.
