Saraswathi Ranganathan, Swaminathan Selvaganesh, and Praveen Narayan

In 2013, Chicago’s World Music Festival opted to level up with the kind of performance that barely existed otherwise in the United States—a 14-hour marathon of both Carnatic and Hindustani classical music, with the sun setting and rising again through the world’s largest Tiffany dome. The event, Ragamala, has since become a mainstay of World Music Festival, drawing several thousand people each year. Many ragas are intended to be played during certain parts of the day, meaning they often cannot be included during concerts in more traditional settings. Ragamala’s design allows it to feature a greater repertoire of works, both because of its expansive timeframe and its mix of Hindustani and Carnatic musicians. For the first time, in a special eight-hour presentation that runs from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Ragamala comes to Knoxville.

Soon after the idea of Ragamala was hatched in Chicago, Saraswathi Ranganathan approached cofounder Brian Keigher with excitement: “Oh my god, you’re helping put together Carnatic music here? ’Cause it’s always Hindustani music.” Ranganathan had grown accustomed to people encountering her veena—a sitar precursor with two large resonating gourds, arguably more hypnotic than its more famous successors—and mistaking it for a sitar. An avid collaborator who has repeatedly broken genre barriers in Chicago, Ranganathan has become a key component of the city’s scene, educating people about the veena and Carnatic music at large while being one of this country’s foremost players. She is joined by Praveen Narayan on tabla and Swaminathan Selvaganesh on a set of percussive instruments for a series of Carnatic ragas.

Saraswathi Ranganathan (veena) w/ Swaminathan Selvaganesh (kanjira, mridangam, ghatam); Praveen Narayan (tabla) (Carnatic Ragas) (60 min set)