Tuesday, January 5, 2021
BRM Networked Concerts: Neel Murgai and Aaron Shragge
8PM EST- 9PM
Online
Event Description
We start out the new year with a new initiative from BRM, our first live networked music concert! That means musicians are collaborating together in real time from their homes using the low latency software Artsmesh. We have done this in the past as a prerecorded concert and are now trying to present this live for the first time. BRM's own Neel Murgai (in Brooklyn, NY) and Aaron Shragge (in Amherst, MA) have been exploring ways to achieve this since the beginning of the quarantine and have developed a new sound and method of playing together forced and inspired by the technical limitations and possibilities. Neel's sitar, overtone singing, percussion and looping meets Aaron's shakuhachi, trumpet and looping with droning ethereal soundscapes, raga minimalism, primal rhythms and improvisational flights of fancy.
Artist Bios
Neel Murgai is a sitarist, overtone singer, daf player, composer and teacher from Brooklyn, NY. He is a co-founder and co-artistic director of the Brooklyn Raga Massive. Neel has studied sitar for 25 years, currently with his guru Pundit Krishna Bhatt. Overtone singing Neel learned from Batuvshin of the Buriyat performance group Uragsha and from Timothy Hill of the Harmonic Choir. He is a graduate of Goddard College's MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts program. His 2020 release “Reorientation” features his compositions with Neel Murgai Ensemble as well as recent experiments in overtone singing and looping. Neel has performed around the world with numerous artists from varying disciplines including, Bill T. Jones, Cyndi Lauper, Wyclef Jean, Andre DeShields, Karsh Kale, Vijay Iyer, Adam Rudolph, Daniel Bernard Romain, Dana Leong, Ellen Stewart, Laraaji, Yuerba Buena, Baba Israel, Raz Mesinai, Mission on Mars, Akim Funk Buddha, Loren Conners, Suzanne Langille, Louis Bellogenis and Cosmo Vinyl. He has performed at venues ranging from the Lincoln Center and Kennedy Center to Late Night with David Letterman to jazz clubs such as the Blue Note and at festivals around the U.S including Art Wallah, Arts Plosure, Masala! Mehndi! Masti! and many others. Neel played in the orchestra for Disney’s musical theater adaptation of “The Jungle Book” directed by Mary Zimmerman. Neel has composed music for many film, TV, video, theater and dance projects including the features, “The Yes Men Fix the World", which premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival and "A Decent Arrangement" starring Shabana Azmi. His music has been featured in the BBC series, “Holidays in the Danger Zone", and TBS programs, “Women of the Ink", and “Spotlights".
Aaron Shragge's music "...delves deeper into that satori place in your brain" - Jazz Times. Aaron Shragge has performed with Daniel Carter, Ben Monder, Dave Douglas, William Parker, Jon Gibson, The Sam Roberts Band, Akim Funk Buddha, and Medeski Martin and Wood's Billy Martin at such venues as Symphony Space, Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center and The Blue Note. Aaron's unique instrument the Dragon Mouth Trumpet was designed to expand the trumpet’s melodic capacity and is the result of over a decade of studying both the Shakuhachi (Japanese, Flute) as well as North Indian Vocals. Being part of Brooklyn Raga Massive since 2014, Shragge regularly performs in various BRM ensembles, serves on BRM's management committee and is also a co-founder of the Brooklyn Raga Massive Music Therapy Initiative.