London Ragas: Breath into Sound | Pandit Ajay Prasanna

Pandit Ajay Prasanna, a four-time Grammy nominee and one of India's leading bansuri players, performs at The Tate Institute in London on 20 August 2026, part of the London Ragas baithak series. Kayam Hussain accompanies him on tabla. He returns after a four-city tour last November that ran from Oxford to Duke's Hall, and arrives mid-tour with Gorillaz, whose album Parvat (The Mountain) features his bansuri.

Ajay Prasanna carries the Banaras Gharana flute lineage of his father, Pandit Bholanath Prasanna, who also taught Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia. His honours include the Global Indian Music Award and the Sangeet Ratna. Kayam Hussain, son and student of tabla maestro Ustad Shahbaz Hussain, has also played tabla with Gorillaz.

The baithak format asks the audience to slow down. Indian classical tradition treats sound as a path to balance and healing, and the bansuri carries that idea in plain form: breath shaped into tone. A long alap can settle a room the way slow breathing settles the mind.

Date: 20 August 2026
Time: 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM
Doors Open: 6:45 PM
Venue: The Tate Institute, Silvertown, London, United Kingdom

Artists:
• Pandit Ajay Prasanna, Bansuri
• Kayam Hussain, Tabla

Tickets run from £15 to £25 and are on sale at kalasudha.com. The organisers ask the audience to leave phones aside during the recital, and the venue does not permit filming or photography.