June 20 and June 23, 2025 at 7 pm

MELA Foundation Dream House

275 Church Street, New York

Two Evening Concerts of Raga Darbari in the contemporary Kirana gharana (style) of North Indian Classical Music will be performed by La Monte Young and The Just Alap Raga Ensemble in tribute to the 29th Anniversary Memorial of Pandit Pran Nath and to the 1st Anniversary Memorial of Marian Zazeela on June 20th and 23rd, at 7:00 pm in the MELA Foundation Dream House light environment, 275 Church Street, 3rd Floor.

The Just Alap Raga Ensemble will perform Pandit Pran Nath’s special arrangement of “Hazrat Turkaman”, a traditional vilampit khayal composition set in Raga Darbari. In 2009, with deep respect for Pandit Pran Nath’s arrangement of this great composition, “Hazrat Turkaman”, Young composed two-part harmony for the ‘sthayi and for the antara. As in his 2003 composition “Raga Sundara” set in Raga Yaman Kalyan, the harmony line for these compositions in Raga Darbari continues the introduction of two-part harmony into Indian classical khayal composition, reinforcing the contribution of this new element into Indian classical music. The harmony for the ‘sthayis of “Hazrat Turkaman” is dedicated to Jung Hee Choi and was composed as a present on her birthday, November 1, 2009; the harmony for the antara is dedicated to Pandit Pran Nath and was composed on his 91st birthday, November 3, 2009.

The Just Alap Raga Ensemble

La Monte Young · voice

Jung Hee Choi · voice

Jon Catler · electric just intonation guitar

Hansford Rowe · electric fretless bass

Naren Budhkar · tabla

The Tamburas of Pandit Pran Nath from the Just Dreams CD