Brooklyn

Brooklyn is a borough of New York City and a cultural hub for Indian classical music in the United States. The neighborhood hosts venues, educational institutions, and artist collectives that promote Hindustani and Carnatic traditions. Notable performances include the annual Brooklyn Raga Massive festival, founded in 2012 by a collective of musicians including guitarist Neel Murgai and sitarist Arun Ramamurthy. The festival features collaborative performances that blend Indian classical music with jazz, electronic, and global genres.

In 2015, Brooklyn Raga Massive released Ragmala: A Garland of Ragas, a live album recorded at ShapeShifter Lab in Brooklyn. The album showcased improvisational works by artists such as violinist Trina Basu, tabla player Roshni Samlal, and saxophonist Jay Gandhi. The label Brooklyn Raga Massive Records distributed the recording, which included tracks like Raga Yaman in Teentaal and Raga Bhairav in Jhaptal. The collective continued to produce recordings, including the 2018 studio album Terry Riley’s In C Malkauns, a reinterpretation of Riley’s minimalist composition with Carnatic and Hindustani instrumentation.

The borough also serves as a base for institutions like the Brooklyn Music School, which offers training in Indian classical vocal and instrumental traditions. Artists such as vocalist Roopa Mahadevan and mridangam player Rajna Swaminathan have conducted workshops and performances in Brooklyn venues like Roulette Intermedium and National Sawdust. Swaminathan’s 2020 album Of Agency and Abstraction, released under her own name, explored experimental approaches to Carnatic rhythm and was recorded in part at studios in Brooklyn.

Brooklyn’s role in Indian classical music extends to fusion projects. In 2017, tabla player Deep Singh and electronic producer Dave Sharma collaborated on Tala Matrix, a live electronic-classical performance series held at venues like Baby’s All Right. The same year, sitarist Anoushka Shankar performed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music as part of her Land of Gold tour, which addressed global migration through a blend of Hindustani classical and flamenco music. The concert featured original compositions from her 2016 album of the same name, released by Deutsche Grammophon.

Limited documentation exists for informal gatherings and smaller performances in Brooklyn’s Indian classical scene. Many events occur in private residences, community centers, or unarchived digital streams. The borough’s influence persists through its intersection of traditional training, cross-genre experimentation, and a diasporic artist community.