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3 min readNew DelhiFeb 19, 2026 05:40 AM IST
Sitarist Anoushka Shankar playing at the Carnegie Hall. (Image Source: Carnegie Hall)
The 135-year-old Carnegie Hall in New York has played host to many iconic concerts featuring Indian musicians. It is where sitarist Ravi Shankar, after his debut in 1933 with his brother Uday Shankar and his company of Indian dancers and musicians, went on to perform 29 times. The Manhattan venue also saw tabla maestro Zakir Hussain performing 22 times throughout his career, in fact, making his debut at the venue in a 1970 concert with Ravi Shankar. Years later, Ravi Shankar’s daughter Anoushka Shankar made her debut at the coveted address in 1996, performing alongside her father.
The Manhattan venue has also played host to Sarod player Amjad Ali Khan, who enthralled the audiences there six times — starting in 1997 with a performance celebrating the 50th year of India’s Independence.
Come next year and, in a first, Carnegie Hall will have an annual festival dedicated to Indian music. The event will mark the first time an institutionalised country-specific festival will be held at Carnegie, recognising the huge Indian diaspora in the American East Coast as well as growing popularity of Indian classical music among world audiences.
Speaking to The Indian Express from New York, Clive Gillinson, Carnegie Hall’s Executive and Artistic Director, said, “Throughout its history, Carnegie Hall has featured the finest musicians and ensembles from around the world on its stages, including appearances by great Indian artistes. While we have explored many global traditions over the years, this new Indian Music Festival is distinctive in being conceived as a dedicated, recurring annual focus.”
Carnegie Hall building in Manhattan, (Image Source: Carnegie Hall)
The line-up for the inaugural edition, to be held on May 21-23, 2027, will be announced soon. Carnegie plans to include A R Rahman, Arijit Singh, Shankar Mahadevan and Kaushiki Chakrabarty, and other names in classical dance forms, sources said.
Gillinson said, “India today continues to be one of the most influential countries globally, and deepening appreciation of its cultural traditions is especially meaningful.”
The inaugural edition will include a performance at the Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage featuring renowned artistes from India and including cross-generational musical collaborations.
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“Over the last 20 years, we have presented major citywide festivals exploring the cultural landscape of a range of places, including China, Japan, South Africa, and Latin America, to name a few. While we have explored many global traditions over the years, this new Indian Music Festival is distinctive in being conceived as a dedicated, recurring annual focus,” Gillinson said. Select Indian artistes will also be awarded with the Carnegie Hall Fellow Award.
The Indian music festival is being made possible through a $10 million (Rs 8.5 crore) gift by Ila and Dinesh Paliwal and their family foundation to Carnegie. Ila, a New York-based vocalist, composer, songwriter and producer, who chairs the Ila & Dinesh Paliwal Foundation, has also been recommended to join the board of Carnegie Hall.
Talking to The Indian Express, Ila said the idea took root two years ago. “Carnegie Hall mainly promotes Western music while Indian music is clubbed under the umbrella of world music. However, New York is a hub of multiculturalism. We aim to institutionalise another aspect of our soft power, something like what yoga did,” she said.
Divya A reports on travel, tourism, culture and social issues - not necessarily in that order - for The Indian Express. She's been a journalist for over a decade now, working with Khaleej Times and The Times of India, before settling down at Express. Besides writing/ editing news reports, she indulges her pen to write short stories. As Sanskriti Prabha Dutt Fellow for Excellence in Journalism, she is researching on the lives of the children of sex workers in India. ... Read More
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