The 15th annual Ragas Live Festival featuring 24 hours of transcendent music in the Pioneer Works Main Hall. The entire program will be broadcast live on video at Pioneer Works' YouTube,  WKCR 89.9 FM in NYC (audio only), and podcast at NYC Radio Live.

For the 2026 festival, more than 50 artists and legendary maestros of the South Asian classical tradition will perform alongside groundbreaking contemporary artists in a musical journey through day and night. The full schedule is below

Perhaps the culmination of the first 15 years of the Ragas Live Festival, the final set of the 24 hours will be the most celebrated Qawwali group of Pakistan, Fareed Ayaz and Abu Muhammad Qawwal, a 12 person party with an 800-year lineage, revered for their mastery of the ecstatic, mystical Qawwali tradition. Classical Hindustani (North Indian) highlights include the sublime vocals of Sanhita Nandi; sitar and tabla virtuosos Indrajit Banerjee & Nitin Mitta; and master of the Afghan rubab, Qurashi, with Mir Naqibul Islam. Representing the traditional music of South India, there will be exciting sets from Carnatic vocalist Aditya Prakash; virtuoso Flute Raman; and Lalgudi GJR Krishnan, one of the foremost violinists in the world and son and disciple of the legendary maestro Lalgudi Jayaraman.

At midnight, Saha Gnawa, led by Maâlem Hassan Ben Jaafar, will present North Africa's traditional Sufi trance, with an ensemble that includes some of New York City's greatest jazz improvisers, including Daniel Freedman, Jason Lindner, and Gilad Hekselman. The first rays of the rising sun will reach Pioneer Works during a set from Gabriel Akhmad Marin (from Consider the Source), a master of ancient Eastern string traditions, on dutar and fretless guitar. Early morning ragas will continue with the sarod maestro Soumya Chakraverty with tabla virtuoso Dibyarka Chatterjee.

The majority of the artists will be performing the classical music of South Asia in accordance with the Raga Samay system, in which particular modes are considered to harmonize with the time of day or night. In the dark of the night, the santoor and tabla duo of Vinay Desai & Anubrata Chatterjee are juxtaposed with explorations of Middle Eastern maqam and African modal music. The festival pays tribute to the legendary Egyptian songstress Umm Kulthum (1904–1975), known across the Arab world as "Kawkab al-Sharq" (the Star of the East), with a large ensemble featuring vocalists Zahra AlZubaidi, Zafer Tawil, Mohamed Salah, and Sami Abu Shumays with The Umm Kulthum Workshop.

A second tribute honors Mali's kora master Toumani Diabaté, performed by his collaborator, the innovative South African guitarist Derek Gripper — who astounded the world, and Toumani himself, by discovering a way to perform the kora repertoire, with all its polyrhythmic elements, on the classical guitar.

A fully immersive experience, the garden of Pioneer Works will include extensive offerings of South Asian food, curated by Karachi Kabab Boiz.