The BRM Concert and Jam Session returns to Barzakh Cafe this month, featuring Neel Murgai and Shreeyash. For the first time in New York, an enchanting evening of Indian magic and music together, evoking both the ancient wonders of the Mughal courts, and the excitement of contemporary sitar, effects, and looping. World magician Shreeyash teams up with sitarist and overtone singer Neel Murgai for an intimate evening of wonder, delight, ragas, and rhythms.
The performance will be followed by the legendary BRM Jam Session, based in ragas but free to travel the world, hosted by BRM Co-Artistic Director Neel Murgai. Musicians coming to participate in the Jam Session get free admission. Sign up to play in the jam here https://event-sign-up.onrender.com/Event/180
Artist and educator Shreeyash is the leading performer of Indian magic in the US, offering a melange of fusion jadoo. He studied with the last living traditional Indian street magicians, and with magicians and improv instructors in Chicago. Las Vegas magic legend Teller is one of his mentors. For decades, he has performed worldwide at Harvard, Yale, and the Smithsonian. He has been featured at magic conventions in the USA, UK, and India, and on the Holland America World Cruise. He has performed at the American Centers in Delhi, Kolkata, and Mumbai, with the Pune Konjurors, and curated a collaboration between traditional and modern Indian magicians in Pune. He consulted on the recent David Blaine series Beyond Belief, and is creating his own documentary and one man show on Indian magic while completing a book. He received a Fulbright fellowship to study Indian magic. He teaches South Asian studies at Fordham.Neel Murgai is a sitarist, overtone singer, daf player, composer and teacher from Brooklyn, NY. He is the Artistic Director of the raga music collective, Brooklyn Raga Massive. Neel has studied sitar for over 25 years, most recently with Pundit Krishna Mohan Bhatt. He is a graduate of Goddard College's MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts program. Neel has performed around the world with numerous artists from varying disciplines including, Bill T. Jones, Cyndi Lauper, Wyclef Jean, Andre DeShields, Karsh Kale, Vijay Iyer, Adam Rudolph, Daniel Bernard Romain, Dana Leong, Ellen Stewart, Laraaji and many more. He has performed at venues ranging from the Lincoln Center and Kennedy Center to Late Night with David Letterman to jazz clubs such as the Blue Note and at festivals around the world.
