The Ragas Live Festival, one of radio’s most ambitious events, expands in its fourth year.
Over 60 world-class musicians will perform Indian Classical Music over a period of 24 hours, all broadcast on WKCR. This year it will now be followed by a free concert in Central Park.
On Saturday June 20, 2015 (midnight to midnight) WKCR will broadcast 24 hours of live performances throughout New York City at 89.9 FM-NY and internationally at www.wkcr.org. The festival will be recorded and made available on both the WKCR archives online at www.wkcr.org and at www.nycradiolive.org.
The event is produced by WKCR in collaboration with 13 leading organizations: Afro Roots NYC, Anindo Chaterjee School of Tabla, Brooklyn Raga Massive, Carnatic Sundays, Chhandayan, HarmoNYom, Krishna Bhatt’s Gurukul, Navatman, NYC Radio Live, Shastra & Taalim School of Indian Music.
Executive Producer, David Ellenbogen, says, “We are experiencing a raga renaissance in New York City. There are so many amazing musicians collaborating within and beyond the genre. This festival is a result of that and has gained a growing international audience. From what I understand, even in India, they have not produced in-studio broadcasts on this scale.”
This year’s festival will feature some of the greatest maestros of Indian Classical Music many of whom reside in India: Pandita Tripti Mukherjee, Ustad Aashish Khan, Pandit Tejendra Majumdar, Pandit Krishna Bhatt, Ustad Mashkoor Ali Khan, Sanghamitra Chatterjee, and Pandit Samir Chaterjee. The title Pandit, Ustad, and Pandita is one reserved for masters of this music.
Alongside these great maestros there will be performers reflecting the exciting new genres and collaborations that are blossoming in New York City. Yacouba Sissoko the great Kora player from Mali will perform the amazing bansuri player Jay Gandhi representing the monthly Africa/India Collaboration concerts produced at Brooklyn Raga Massive events. Chamber Raga, a form being explored in NYC will be represented by Karavika. The astounding prodigy Vivek Pandya who made his Ragas Live debut with a 45 minute solo at 8 years old, will now perform at 10 years old with the maestros Samarth Nagarkar (vocal); Abhik Mukherjee (sitar).
Over the years, many fans and performers have requested that they can attend the festival in person. This year, Ragas Live will continue outside of WKCR at Central Park. There will be live performances and workshops in Central Park’s Dairlylawn West 65 Street (5/6 Aves) New York, NY from 1:30-8pm on Sunday June 21st.
Ragas Live Festival Radio Broadcast: June 20th (from 12:00am to 11:59pm June 20th). You can tune in to WKCR on 89.9FM in the NYC area or online at wkcr.org. Any questions about tuning in can be sent to board@wkcr.org.
Direct press inquiries to:
Executive Producer:
David Ellenbogen, davidellenbogen@gmail.com
Publicity Director, WKCR:
Zachary Hap Seligman Karen, board@wkcr.org
Schedule (subject to change):
12am to 1am :: Mashkor Ali Khan (vocal) + Nitin Mitta (tabla)
1am to 2am :: Camila Celin (sarod) + Ehren Hanson (tabla)
2am to 3am :: Max ZT (hammered dulcimer)
3am to 4am :: Sandip Bhattacharya (Vocal)
4am to 5am :: Arjun Verma (Sitar)
5am to 6am :: Indro Roy-Chowdhury (sitar) + Anirban Dasgupta (sarod) + Mike Lukshis (tabla)
6am to 7am :: Suhas Joshi (vocal) Gopal Kalluri (tabla) Neeraj Joshi (harmonium)
7am to 8am :: Payton MacDonald, Dhrupad Trance; Dan Weiss, drumset; Reena Esmail, violin & piano
8am to 9am :: Achyut Joshi (Vocal)
9am to 10am :: Karavika Amali Premawardhana (cello) Trina Basu (Violin) Perry Wortman (bass) Sameer Gupta (tabla)
10am to 11am :: Samarth Nagarkar (vocal); Abhik Mukherjee (sitar); Vivek Pandya (tabla)
11am to 12pm :: Steve Gorn (banusri), Eric Fraser (bansuri), and Ehren Hanson (tabla)
12pm to 1pm :: Navatman Music Collective
1pm to 2pm :: Namaskar: Sameer Gupta: drumset, tabla Arun Ramamurthy: violin Rashaan Carter: violin Neel Murgai, sitar
2pm to 3pm :: Om Gam: Michael Gam (bass), Kane Mathis (kora), Arun Ramamurthy (violin), Shiva Goshal (tabla)
3pm to 4pm :: Jay Gandhi (bansuri) & Arun Ramamurthy (violin) with Abhi Seetharaman (mridangam)
4pm to 5pm :: Chhandayan Tabla Ensemble (Avinash Bose, Aditya Shinn, Rafi Hakim, Ronak Seth, Noelina Arciniegas, Kedar Gangopadhyay and Benjamin Stewart); Aditya Phatak (tabla solo); Chhandayan Vocal Ensemble (Roshni Basu, Shampa Chanda, Adwaitaa Goswami, Dibyakalyan Basu, Andrew Shantz, Harry Einhorn and Anand Prashad-tabla)
5pm to 6pm :: Pradhanica (Instrumental), Jin Won (Kathak), Mike Lukshis (tabla), Kaumil Shah (djembe), and Vincent Pierce (cajon).
6pm to 7pm :: Yacouba Sissoko (Kora) Jay Gandhi (Bansuri): David Ellenbogen (guitar)
7pm to 8pm :: Aashish Khan (Sarod), Anupam Shobhakar (Sarod) & Dan Weiss (tabla)
8pm to 9pm :: Krishna Bhatt (Sitar)
9pm to 10pm :: Sanghamitra Chatterjee (vocal) with Samir Chatterjee (tabla), Tabla Duet - Samir Chatejee & Tejas Tope
10pm to 11pm :: Tajendra Majumdar (Sarod) Nitin Mitta (tabla)
11pm to 12am :: Tripti Mukherjee (vocal), Samir Chatterjee (tabla)
