This month’s Colors of raga features the Samarth Nagarkar Khayal Ensemble, who will present a kaleidoscope of sorts with a wide variety of ragas, compositions and talas. This performance will explore the rich traditions of Khayal to highlight repertoire across different gharanas and eras, through popular, familiar as well as lesser known and rare gems.

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Samarth Nagarkar

Samarth Nagarkar is a Khayal musician (Hindustani /North Indian classical voice music) - a singer, educator and author, regarded as a flag-bearer of raga music globally. His Music is described as being richly traditional and emotive with a deep meditative, introspective quality. He features in prominent music festivals and venues across the world. He has several solo and collaborative albums to his credit and has authored the much lauded book, ‘Raga Sangeet’. Trained under distinguished gurus, Ulhas Kashalkar and Dinkar Kaikini, he represents the Gwalior, Agra and Jaipur gharanas and is a former scholar of the ITC Sangeet Research Academy, Kolkata. He is a recipient of the Outstanding Achievement Award for Excellence in the Arts from NAKA, and a Fellowship from the Ministry of Culture, Govt. of India. Samarth presently runs Raga Sangeet Creative and is among the first to scale digital platforms like Patreon in the Indian classical music world, pioneering new avenues of audience engagement, music education, mentorship and monetization. Samarth has been a part of Brooklyn Raga Massive since its inception. 

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Sandip Ghosh 

Sandip Ghosh is one of today's leading tabla exponents performing across the world as a soloist, accompanist and collaborator. He trained under reputable gurus like Anindo Chatteree and Govindo Bose. Sandip in based in Kolkata and tours the US every year. 

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Suhail Yusuf Khan,

Suhail Yusuf Khan is a Sarangi player, singer, composer, and PhD candidate in the department of music at Wesleyan University, USA. With a  performance career that extends over 20 years, he brings together expertise, creative ability, and academic research to find new modes of expression in Hindustani music, contemporary rock fusion, pop, folk, jazz, and experimental music. His ethnographic scholarship draws on personal experience as an eighth-generation musician in a lineage of Hindustani musicians.

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