MUMBAI: Promoting cross-cultural collaborations and music as an art form, a special seven-day workshop ‘The Raagataala Lab’ has been designed for global musicians interested in learning Indian Classical nuances. The music workshop will be held from 2-11 January in Jodhpur.

Organized by Centro Professione Musica (Milan, Italy), Occhi Di Ulisse (Lucca, Italy) and Inroom Records (Mumbai, India), the sessions will be conducted at various heritage sites in the city and will involve lessons in harmonies, melodies and rhythms in Hindustani Classical music. The workshop will also feature a special cross-cultural concert dedicated in the memory of the late Pandit Ravi Shankar.

Mumbai based tabla exponent Ustad Fazal Qureshi will teach the nuances of rhythms, while Kolkata based sitarist Purbayan Chatterjee will teach melodies and Sunanda Sharma will elaborate on vocal techniques. The workshop will also include detailed sessions with each ‘Gurus’ on various techniques with a special focus on integrating traditional sounds with world, jazz, rock and electronic genres. Each guru has been chosen on the basis of their growing work in world music and for collaborating fearlessly with global sounds and musicians.

Qureshi said, “The impact of Indian Classical music globally is there for everyone to see. There are many foreigners who come all the way from their countries to learn Indian music.  Also suddenly you hear some Indian instruments being played in some Hollywood films. And with the popularity of musicians like Zakir Hussain, Ustad Sultan Khan and composers including AR Rahman, the impact is felt more. As far as fusion music is concerned, it is heading in the right direction. There is a lot of experimentation happening in the world, as far as music is concerned, some are good some not. But I can feel that as time is passing more good collaborations are happening.”

The workshop aims to capture the growing interest of Hindustani Classical music in the global market. Meant mainly for international students, the annual event will also showcase folk artists from across the country and includes pointers on electro-fusion.

Centro Professione Musica director Franco Mussida said, “The purpose of the workshop is to get the young Italian musicians in touch with the spirit of the Hindustani classical music which has its true nature in the spiritual world of sound. We want to motivate musicians by giving 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.”