The Raagataala Lab To Launch In Early Jan

Curated and programmed for musicians from across the world interested in learning Indian Classical nuances, The RaagaTaala Lab is a 7-day workshop due to take place from 2-11 January in Jodhpur, Rajasthan.

A result of an Indo-Italian collaboration between CPM (Milan, Italy), Occhi Di Ulisse (Lucca, Italy) and Inroom Records (Mumbai, India), RaagaTaala Lab will be conducted over 10-days at various heritage sites in Jodhpur. It wil also play host to a cross-cultural concert dedicated to the late Ravi Shankar.

Veteran musicians such as Mumbai based Tablist Ustad Fazal Qureshi, Kolkata based Sitarist Purbayan Chatterjee and Vocalist Sunanda Sharma will be amongst the traineers who will all put a special focus on integrating traditional/classical sounds with contemporary jazz, rock and electronic genres.

“The global impact of Indian Classical music is there for everyone to see. There are many foreigners who come all the way from their countries to learn Indian music (...) And with the popularity of musicians, such as Zakir Hussain, Ustad Sultan Khan and also music directors such as AR Rahman the impact is felt even more.” - Fazal Qureshi, (Allah Rakha Institute Of Music)

Franco Mussida, Director of CPM, the biggest music school in Italy, agrees, “The purpose of the workshop is to get young Italian musicians in touch with the spirit of Hindustani classical music. We want to motivate musicians and give them a sense of our role in the World that in the West is being lost. We hope that the vocal techniques, rhythms and melodies proposed by the Guru of the respective instruments – tabla, sitar and voice - can be translated into incentives to grow and to colour the art personality of each student. An amazing contribution to their future careers.”

Apart from workshops/lessons, RTL will also showcase folk and classical artists from across India, as well as include pointers on electro-fusion. Since this workshop is also open to Indian students (in limited capacity), it will also work as a networking platform for contemporary classical musicians.

If successful, The RaagaTaala Lab will be an annual workshop, held in the heart of Ragasthan. More information can be found on their website here