Family Business Beats the Odds

By Mary Staub, June 2016

Brooklyn, NY

(originally published in the Red Hook Star Revue)

Conventional wisdom often has it that mixing family and business is a route to ruin. Conventional wisdom also often has it that if you are going to start your own business, you might want to enter a field within your expertise. But, conventional wisdom is just that—conventional. And those who fly in the face of convention reap unexpected rewards.

Or thus has been the case with Big Dawg Party Rentals, a local, family-owned-and-operated party equipment rental business that, in less than three years, has gone from idea to go-to source for party equipment in Red Hook, Brooklyn, Manhattan and beyond. Co-owned by a team of two, father-and-son-in-law Michael Giordano and Brendan Quinlan, Big Dawg has gone from cold, empty warehouse on Bowne Street in 2013, to 6’000 square-feet of equipment the first year in operation, to 15’000 square-feet of equipment today. (And they are ready for more.) Big Dawg has gone from being a complete newcomer to being the exclusive vendor for numerous local business (Pioneer Works, Methodist, among them) and  working the recent democratic debate at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

 “All told about 2000 chairs, 250 tables, we set it all up and took it down in a 24-hour period,” said Giordano. “One of the biggest events in the country. And then we had to go to set up at the Intrepid within 36 hours. We got very little sleep. I looked at my partner and said: you know, I think we’ve made it.”

How did they get from there to here, then to now?

It all began with Wall Street, an engagement party, and a misplaced delivery.

Around 2008, Giordano, who had been working on Wall Street for three decades and ran two corporate brokerage firms, decided he didn’t like the direction Wall Street was taking. So he took stock of where he was and where he was headed. He started playing with the idea of opening his own business.

“I started kicking around a few different businesses,” Giordano said. “And Brendan [my then future son-in-law] was good with technology. So we analyzed four or five different businesses.”

The seed for a party rental business was planted at Quinlan’s engagement party, organized by Giordano and his wife Catherine (whose daughter, Justine, Quinlan was about to marry). “We threw an engagement party,” said Giordano. “And the company we rented equipment from left it on the wrong floor. So we had to shlep all this equipment up to the right floor. They didn’t seem so big on customer service.”

Fast forward to today and you have Big Dawg Party Rentals, whose mission and driving force are just that—customer service. Giordano and Quinlan crunched some numbers and decided to dive in.

“I knew we needed to attack the customer service angle,” said Giordano. “Whether people are in the office or in the field, there’s one rule: customers set the rules so work hard and be nice. At the time, we didn’t know anything about party rental. We just knew that customer service was lacking.”

Since then, Big Dawg’s family of two has expanded to a family of 23, many of whom come from outside the party business. A former lawyer, real estate broker, and interior designer are among the mix. These disparate influences from outside the party business have helped make Big Dawg into what it is today, says Giordano: “The interesting thing about this story is there’s a mixture of five or six people in the administrative part of the industry. Because of that we’re not restrained by the typical things. It creates an interesting dynamic.”

At the same time, there’s a glue that binds the team, said Giordano’s wife, Catherine, who began working with her husband at Big Dawg about a year ago. And this glue is the commitment to customer service.

“The trick is when you grow [as a business], not to forget what was in our mission statement,” said Catherine. “There are really no degrees for party rental specialist and some of it is in one’s make-up. Do we have the patience to talk someone through the process? Do we listen carefully? This is in our DNA.”

It’s this DNA that flows through Big Dawg’s veins and makes the 23 current employees into a family. When new hires come on board, Giordano might say, “we’re gonna be family here and we’re gonna build a business. They look at it and realize it’s something special.”

Another binding force is the fact that more than a quarter of the team are blood family. In addition to Michael and Catherine Giordano, there are Catherine’s son James, her daughter Justine and Michael’s son Patrick who work for the business. (Michael’s other son, Michael, Jr., used to be part of the team, but he recently moved.) James wears many hats, mostly in construction. Justine works in the office. Patrick is about to join full-time after completing a degree in food studies.

So what of conventional wisdom?

“I did think initially, ‘Oh my goodness, this could be challenging,” Catherine said of sharing an office with her husband. “But Michael never really questioned it. He said immediately, ‘I think it’s a great thing. Who am I gonna trust more?’”

Big Dawg’s work is reaching beyond Red Hook and Brooklyn more and more. But their initial focus was on serving the Red Hook community, with a commitment to local businesses and venues and work at Hometown Bar B Q, Liberty Warehouse, local schools, Lobster Shack, and more.

“We concentrated very hard on Red Hook itself,” said Giordano. “It’s an interesting place. It’s done well for us. Brooklyn is a slice of the country. Everyone lives together in a very compatible place.” Or, in the words of Catherine, who grew up in Dyker Heights, “Brooklyn is hot.”

The People Behind the Personas of Coney Island's Mermaids

By Mary Staub, July, 2016

Brooklyn, NY

(originally published in the Red Hook Star-Revue)

On the surface, Coney Island’s Mermaid Parade may seem like it is all about glitz and glam, costumes and crowds, pomp and personas. What has drawn Luke Ratray, a Carroll Gardens photographer, to the parade for the past twenty years, though, is the people behind those personas. Every year since 1996, Ratray has set up his old-fashioned film camera along the Coney Island boardwalk during the parade to find and capture the individuals behind these created identities.

“The pageantry is fun but not as interesting,” said Ratray. “The parade happens because people show up. It happens because people want it to happen. I’m more interested in the personality of those people.”

The images that Ratray has shot of these people over the past twenty years are on view for the first time this summer, through July 24^th, in “Coney Island Mermaids, 1996 – 2016” at the Boerum Hill gallery Urban Folk Art Gallery.

Ratray’s great passion throughout his photographic career has always been for capturing people. And people who create identities for themselves are of particular interest to him. These images often expose more about a person than images of a person standing naked.

“What’s funny is that someone who creates an identity for himself and becomes someone else often reveals more about them,” Ratray said the day before the exhibit’s opening reception last month. 

“They’re telling me more about who they are. My attempt is to always get someone to reveal something of themselves that they normally wouldn’t.”

Ratray shot all of his images in black and white for a reason. First, it was just convenience. (He could develop the images in his own dark room). But after a few years, he realized that black and white was the best way to capture the people behind the mermaid personas. The brash color palette of the Coney Island landscape would easily blind a person’s ability to perceive the subtler nuances of the people that populate that landscape.

“The noisy, chaotic environment of Coney Island can be a distraction; it’s meant to be a distraction, deliberately, meant to be eye candy,” said Ratrey. “I’m trying to photograph the people inside the costumes. By shooting black and white it takes the person out of the environment. If I were shooting color, if there’s a neon Budweiser sign, even across the street, down the block, it will come shouting out at you.”

Similarly, Ratray’s use of film (versus digital) is all in service of bringing out the individual. For him, photography is as much about the process as the product, as much about interaction as image.

“Making portraits on film is a completely different experience both for photographer and subject,” said Ratray. “In terms of interacting with the person [whom your photographing], it’s a very different thing when you’re looking in their eyes and you get them comfortable and then immediately after you take the picture you look into your camera. You break the interaction. People [the subjects] immediately want to see the result, too. But the interaction is almost as important as the picture itself. 

If I’m shooting film, there’s a process, an effort, a bit of mystery because you can’t see the picture right away. Showing someone that I’m making the effort, they treat me differently than someone who’s across the street with a camera and long lens.”

Over the past twenty years, Coney Island has of course changed dramatically with chains such as Applebee’s and It’s Sugar setting up shop. These changes are symbolic of the broader changes that characterize all of New York City, says Ratray, and have also colored the parade itself.

“Because [the parade] is built off the people that show up, it tends to be a microcosmic reflection of the city as a whole,” said Ratray, who grew up in Manhattan and has lived in Carroll Gardens for the past twenty years. “New York City has become a different city in the past twenty years. It’s harder to be a small business, harder to be an artist.”

Ratray sees this reflected in the parade. It has gone from being a small, community event when it first launched in 1983 to being the nation’s largest “art” parade, with more than 3000 creative participants and more than half a million spectators. And this broader appeal has changed its flavor, says Ratray.

“I don’t want to criticize any of it because people are having a good time and doing their thing—and that’s all good,” said Ratray. “But as with anything else, when things grow, with more people showing up, there’ll be less of an element of individual creativity. Not everyone is a hard-core do-it-yourself costumer. There are mermaid costumes being sold in Halloween stores. That’s fine. It means, though, that many people are buying their costume and looking the same. The parade becomes a little watered down.”

But that’s the parade, not necessarily the people who make up the parade. It’s in search of these people behind the personas that Ratray has kept going back year after year. Also, he hopes that what he is doing, his images of individuals, his spotlight on people, his emphasis on creative enterprise will bring the importance of local artists and small business to the fore.

“Coney Island is a place of dwindling small business—I’m a local artist and small business myself, like many others,” said Ratray. “New York City is changing dramatically. I want to encourage people to support small business and local artists.”

So will he ever stop?

“I’ll keep going as long as it remains interesting—interesting to me, that is,” he said, emphasizing that all of this, the images on view and the words spoken were just that: his view—nothing more nothing less.

“Coney Island Mermaids, 1996-2016” at Urban Folk Art Gallery, 101 Smith Street, Boerum Hill, www.urbanfolkart.com Exhibit open daily through July 24, noon-8:30 pm. Free.

Battle of the Decades at Cora's Red Hook Prom

May 6, 2016, By Mary Staub
Brooklyn, NY (originally published in the Red Hook Star-Revue) 

The battle of the decades is coming to Red Hook the first Saturday in May. On May 7th, Cora Dance will throw their 4th Annual Red Hook Prom. Adults can dance the night away until 11 pm, whilst supporting Cora’s pay-what-you-can youth programs, which aim to make dance and artistic expression available and accessible to all. The group’s overall mission is to use the arts to foster understanding and common ground amongst diverse populations.

Red Hook mother and real estate salesperson Elizabeth Ehrhardt is crowned Prom Queen at the first Cora Prom.

This year’s prom is an 1980s versus 1990s dance party battle. Attendees are invited to show their support for their favorite by dressing the part. Throughout the night, attendees can bid for their decade in tip jars stationed throughout the dance hall. A bid count at 10 pm will determine whether local DJ, Robert Lux spins music from the 80s or 90s for the final hour.

“You choose: dress in 80s or 90s style, and meet us on the dance floor for an epic battle of the decades,” Cora’s prom invite proclaims.

This year’s prom is sponsored by Realty Collective, a local real estate company. President, Victoria Hagman chose to support the Prom specifically because Cora has been “very impactful,” and includes a rich diversity of students. “Cora has been instrumental in the neighborhood for a long time,” she said. “Their students are representative of the diversity of the neighborhood.”

“The community they’ve created is for kids that are more creative and specifically interested in dance. As a youth, it’s important for kids to have a place to really be expressive,” Hagman said. She also noted that Cora’s programming extends to all kinds of dance for each individual student’s preferences and personality.

King and Queen
The prom takes place in the gym of the local South Brooklyn Community High School (SBCHS). Drinks and nibbles will be featured from local favorites Botta di Vino, Sixpoint Brewery, Hometown BBQ, and Court Street Grocers. The event will also include a beauty station by the Gowanus-based Elements Hair Studio and a silent auction. The “Red Hook Royalty,” selected for their volunteer work for Cora over the past year, will officially be coronated.

Prom King and Queen are Scott Pfaffman and Nahisha McCoy, both parents of Cora youth students. King Pfaffman, a local contractor, is being honored for the pro bono work he provided when Cora moved into their new space last year on the second-floor of Red Hook Ministries. He and his workers replaced the floors, installed heaters and a new fridge, and built cabinetry.

Queen McCoy is being crowned for her role as lead volunteer for Cora. She picks up children from local schools and brings them to Cora for after-school dance programs, helps organize other volunteers, and distributes flyers.

But why a prom? Shannon Hummel, Cora’s Founder and Artistic Director, came up with the idea when she was looking for ways to have a gala fundraiser geared towards locals. And, she thought, who doesn’t like a prom? Especially a prom devoid of teen angst and inhibition.

“We wanted to have a gala fundraiser. Shannon wanted a way to involve the community and everyone who is involved with Cora, not just big funders,” said Kelsey Kramer, Cora Dance’s Communications Manager.

The evening is focused on dancing. Cora’s Youth and Professional Companies will perform, but guests are also encouraged to shake it down on the dance floor.
“It’s mainly a dance party—that’s pretty much what it is,” said Kramer. “It’s mostly centered on dancing and having a good time.”
Admission to the Red Hook Prom is $100, or pay-what-you-can with a $5 minimum. For tickets and more information, visit coradance.org/red-hook-prom.

Private School Enters Red Hook

March 4, 2016, By Mary Staub

Brooklyn, NY (originally published in the Red Hook Star-Revue) 

Sitting between Red Hook Park and the Brooklyn Community Farm and just steps from Ikea and the Red Hook Houses, Basis Independent school opened its doors in Red Hook last September on the corner of Columbia and Bay Streets. Basis, a K-12 private school, is run by a corporation that operates charter schools in the Midwest. 

Parents picking up their children at BASIS last September. (photo by George Fiala)

When plans for the new school first came to light in 2013, Red Hook residents and community members were split in their opinions of the school; with community members petitioning both for and against its locating to an industrial zone in Red Hook.

That December, critics speaking out at a Community Board 6 meeting argued that the 1000-seat private school was inappropriate for the working-class neighborhood that surrounded it.

Red Hook business owners worried it would obstruct traffic flow in the area and interfere with local industrial growth. In response, community supporters of the school initiated a petition on Change.org, which argued the school would bring jobs to the neighborhood, make its auditorium available to the community, and would offer a small number of local scholarships to the local community.

Now, about six months after the school opened in Red Hook, where do things stand?

BASIS students celebrate the 100th day of classes in the Red Hook school. (photo courtesy of the BASIS Independent Brooklyn Facebook page)

Curiosity and questions abound. 

Henrietta Perkins is a resident of the Red Hook Houses who has been active in community affairs. She spoke in support of BASIS back in 2014.She showed great surprise when asked about the school in February.

“I didn’t even know it had opened,” said Perkins. Two years ago, meanwhile, she had advocated alongside the plot’s landowner for approval of construction of the school because, as she said, “Why would people be against a school?”

Now, she has questions. She wonders about the school in general, whether indeed any Red Hook children have enrolled, and whether any rooms are ever available to locals. “This is a secret school,” said Perkins. “I never see anyone down there.”

The school’s website gives some insight. Students come to the school from Battery Park City, Brighton Beach, the Upper East Side, Flushing and everywhere in between, according to their page. Buses transport children to and from the school in the mornings and afternoons. Whether local children have enrolled at the school, though, remains unclear.

When contacted in February, school officials, who are currently busy with admissions for the 2016-17 term, promised to provide more insight at a later date when they had more “bandwidth” to devote to the local newspaper. They also promised a tour.

In the meantime, it can be learned from the website that information sessions for prospective students and their families are being held on various days for distinct grade levels throughout March.

At $24,000 per year, the private school costs about half as much as most other New York City private schools. It recently announced a limited High School Merit Scholarship Program based on performance and need. Videos and articles on the school blog show kindergartners learning Mandarin, and middle schoolers exploring the moon and Greece via virtual reality.

While this information, and more, is available online, locals are not in the loop.

Lillie Marshall, president of the Red Hook West Tenants Association, said, “I don’t know anything about the school – I have no idea what’s going on. Usually, anything that comes to Red Hook, we hear about or it is talked about. I just see the buses bringing kids and buses picking kids up.” Marshall had opposed the construction of the school in 2014.

The BASIS gym. Photo from BASIS International Brooklyn’s Facebook page.

Natasha Campbell, of Red Hook’s Summit Academy, indicated interaction between the two schools had been basically non-existent, but would be of interest.

“As Executive Director of this school I have yet to be contacted by BASIS Independent School,” said Campbell, adding, in the same breath, that she had not yet reached out to them, either. “But we welcome communication. And we would welcome opportunity to collaborate, should it arise.”

While BASIS is definitely in the community, it might not yet be of the community.

Cora’s Adult Dance Class Return to Red Hook

April, 2016, By Mary Staub

Brooklyn, NY

(originally published in the Red Hook Star-Revue)

Shannon Hummel/Cora Dance brought a sampling of adult dance classes to locals at the group’s new studio at Red Hook Ministries on Van Dyke Street last month.  On Saturday, March 5^th, adults ranging from age 12 (members of Cora’s youth dance group) to at least 60, and from first-time dancers to professional performers, dabbled in a palette of movement styles that included yoga, hip hop, ballet, reggae/dance hall, and more.

Classes were well-attended, with 28 students cramming into a reggae/dance hall class at 11.30, the day’s most popular class. Other classes attracted about 20 students each.  The instructors, professional dancers and teachers, often with their own companies, attracted both novices and professionals by challenging participants in a playful way. Karen Ross, who led the reggae/dance hall class, kept the mood light as she engaged a wide range of participants—neighborhood moms, long-time Cora dance class participants, and young adult dancers from other Brooklyn neighborhoods. Some of Cora’s youth group dancers and members of a visiting dance troupe from Harrisonburg, Virginia, the Shenandoah Contemporary Dance Theatre, also joined. They all had different reasons for coming and brought different skills to the classes, but teachers welcomed them all.  

“Loved it.” “Awesome.” “Really glad I came.” “Amazing class, choreographers and experience overall.” “Great group of people.” These were some of the comments participants shared after class.  “The director has an awesome spirit and her staff and kids reflect her hard work,” said another.

The classes on March 5^th served to reintroduce Cora’s adult dance classes to the community after they had gone on hiatus in November of 2014. Cora, whose main mission is their youth classes, took a break from holding adult classes 18 months ago because they lost their then-studio. They were busy moving into and renovating  this second-floor space of Red Hook Ministries throughout the summer of 2015. While the youth classes started up again last October, this adult workshop weekend marked the relaunch of Cora’s new adult classes, which are being developed based on workshop feedback.  Feedback indicated that community interest was greatest for reggae/dance hall and ballet, so this is what Cora is organizing for a class series in May and June. Classes will be drop-in, pay-what-you-can, geared towards beginner-level students, but open to more advanced levels, too.

“The classes are for any adults wanting to get out and move,” said Kelsey Kramer, Cora’s communications manager. “They are a way for people to touch upon something they might have done when they were younger. It’s a chance for adults to be part of Cora.”

Cora’s adult program extends the mission of their youth program, which is to give all children access to the arts.

“We really believe in breaking down any barriers that prevent kids from having access to the performing arts,” said Kramer.

Similarly, the adult classes give locals access to dance without having to take a bus and subway, an obstacle that can be difficult to overcome “just” for the sake of dance, as several workshop participants said. 

Sunny's Nights

 March, 2016, by Mary Staub
Brooklyn, NY

(originally published in the Red Hook Star-Revue)

It resembled a reunion of family and friends at the Book Court last Tuesday, as a jovial crowd of about 80 gathered for a reading of Tim Sultan’s memoir ‘Sunny’s Nights: Lost and Found at a Bar on the Edge of the World.’ Stemming from Sultan’s years as a bartender at Sunny’s Bar, Red Hook’s legendary waterfront speakeasy, the book is an homage to a bar and place from a time otherwise long past and a portrait of the bar’s owner, Antonio Balzano, otherwise known as Sunny.

Tim Sultan first came upon Sunny’s in 1995, whilst soul-searching in the neighborhood and thirsting for a drink. Family-owned and operated for more than a century, Sunny’s is known for attracting an eclectic cast of customers—from artists to dock workers to nuns and mobsters, or anyone else in search of a far-flung place and time. When Sultan entered those doors more than twenty years ago, he immediately knew he had found a new home. What he came upon, as described in the book, is a dark room filled with maritime relics and a conglomeration of quietly drinking men, their gazes fixated upon a movie screen where a rendering of Martha Graham’s Appalachian Spring was being projected.

Not what he had expected.

Sultan quit his office job soon thereafter to work as bartender at Sunny’s full-time. The friendship that developed between bartender and owner, and the experiences Sultan encountered during this time, form the backbone of this memoir.

At Book Court on Tuesday, in fedora-style hat, white dress shirt, blazer and sneakers, Sunny himself made a striking presence. Taking a front-row seat, he chuckled audibly and applauded—along with the rest of the audience—as Sultan and Bob Cole engaged in a dramatic reading of excerpts from the book, with Cole bringing to life Sunny’s words. (“This is not rated G,” said Sultan, before commencing.) Sunny gently bubbled with laughter as Cole and Sultan revived one of the many instances where he took liberties as mixologist—presenting a burlermaker (aka boilermaker) that consisted of one-to-one volumes of whiskey and beer.

At the end of the reading of this heartfelt memoir—a humoristically-told tale of a distant corner of New York City where unlikely lives intersect and make a home—“It’s the truth,” quietly rang forth from Sunny’s front-row seat as the audience applauded.

After a brief Q & A, Sunny took to the podium once more to thank everyone for making the bar into what it is today and for bringing the past to the present and resurrecting memories from yesterday. “All of a sudden, what was yesterday is today,” said Sunny. And in a circular play on words that brought the room into laughter: “I thank once again all of you for being part of what it is at the bar that is part of what it is at the bar that is. […] I think at this breath if I continue to continue...,” he trailed off softly with a tip of the hat as he returned to his seat.

A line formed quickly thereafter, snaking along the bookstore perimeter, for book purchases and signings by Sultan and Sunny. Sunny stuck around. Audiences mingled. The reunion continued.

Red Hook Residency Blurs Boundaries

January 31, 2016, By Mary Staub
Brooklyn, NY (originally published in the Red Hook Star-Revue) 

From February to April, the Brooklyn-based music collective Brooklyn Raga Massive (BRM) is bringing Indian classical music fused with a wide range of contemporary and world music styles to Red Hook during a 13-week residency at Pioneer Works. Since the inception of its artist residency program in 2012, Pioneer Works, a former ironworks facility, has been fostering cross-disciplinary and cross-genre dialogue between artists and community members. In this vein, BRM’s residency brings weekly concerts, workshops, films, educational opportunities, food, and dance to Red Hook.

Photo credit to Andrew Mendelson.

Founded four years ago, BRM consists of about 12 steadfast members—Indian classical musicians, mostly born and raised in the U.S., but rooted in India. What brought them together four years ago was their interest in exploring new ways of crossing into other musical genres and representing Indian classical music in the here and now to new audiences.

“We connected on that exploration,” says Arun Ramamurthy, one of BRM’s co-founders. “Like-minded individuals just sort of come together like magnets. We realized something exciting happening and decided to grab it [and form BRM].”

One of the aims of the residency, according to Ramamurthy, is to bring Eastern and Western, ancient and contemporary worlds together and bridge the gap that often exists between these worlds. “Indian classical music can be viewed as hard to get to,” says Ramamurthy. “We want to create music and art that brings our worlds together and push forward the music in a way that we can all understand it and bring people together.”

BRM kicks off its Red Hook residency on February 3rd with a concert that brings African and Indian worlds together. Awa Sangho’s “golden voice of Mali” meets upon the electro-acoustic sounds of a duo on tabla (an Indian percussive instrument) and kora (a 21-string West African harp-like instrument). The African mbira (an African ‘thumb piano’), South Asian bansuri flute, and BRM musicians add to the canon.

Wednesday residency at Pioneer WorksThe multi-genre, multi-disciplinary concert series continues every Wednesday thereafter throughout February, March and April. Each week focuses on a different theme, highlighting a different aspect of Indian classical music and its relationship to other genres and disciplines. February 10th highlights the interconnectedness of dance and music with BRM musicians accompanying a range of solo dancers rooted in Indian classical dance. February 17th bends the boundaries of Jugalbandhi, typically a duet between solo musicians, but here taking on new life. February 24th pays tribute to George Harrison and the Beatles, who, famously, helped introduce Western audiences to the traditions of Indian music through some of their own music.

Each week’s performance is preceded by a workshop or film that adds another dimension to the evening’s concert. On Thursdays, meanwhile, a six-week interactive seminar offers participants the opportunity to delve into the metaphysical system of Nada Yoga, which forms the bedrock of all Indian classical music. (Meaning ‘union through sound’, Nada Yoga is a spiritual art and science that allows one to walk the avenues of sound and music to reach the surrounding universe.) Participants will explore ways to apply these principles to their own musical, creative, or listening endeavors. Overall, the 13-week residency will allow BRM and collaborators to embark on a new composition and recording project that will result in an album that “captures the energy” of their Red Hook residency.

But Brooklyn Massive Raga—what’s in the name? Literally, raga translates as ‘that which colors the mind’, explains Ramamurthy. Musically, ragas are like scales, but different in that there are ornamentations on the notes. Ornaments combined with notes make up a raga. Or in other words: A human being consists of the physical attributes of bones and skin (notes), but can also take on different emotional qualities like sadness, happiness, and hopefulness (ornamentations). Similarly, a raga can take on different qualities. “Ragas are a musical tool for individuals to express themselves in music,” says Ramamurthy. “When artists perform in ragas their intention is to connect with each member of the audience. It’s very meditative, peaceful music. You have to experience it to know how it moves you.”