Raga Fellowship

The Fellowship is open to applicants from all age groups.

There are no pre-requisites for participants, but data shows that candidates who have done at least 2-3 Raga Jams or taken a few levels of the IndianRaga Certification have a distinct advantage in the Fellowship selection process. The IndianRaga Certification feedback by our panel of experts helps develop strong technical competence while the Raga Jams process helps participants get familiar with the process of collaboration, audio/video production, and developing creative approaches. Please note that the IndianRaga Fellowship selection team is not provided with any information on who has done a Raga Jam or Certification so as to keep the process fair.

You can submit a recent performance link, or record one afresh simply using a phone or camera. There is no specific time limit for the duration of the performance link but we would encourage you to submit one within 3-5 minutes.  If the video is longer, please specify a 5-minute (continuous) time in the link that showcases the best of your ability. Please make sure that the video is not shaky.

Please send an unprocessed/unedited audio or video.

For Music categories, you are free to use any accompaniment of your choice, but at the bare minimum an electronic tanpura for Carnatic vocalists and instrumentalists, and an electronic tanpura plus i-tabla for Hindustani vocalists and instrumentalists is mandatory.

For Dance categories, video is a must with the person clearly visible in the video.  Also the dancer should submit a video that showcases both nritta and abhinaya.

IndianRaga does not reveal the names of panelists who evaluate Fellowship applications. The panel itself consists of a mix of experts in the genre who are able to provide meaningful feedback with logical reasoning, as well as past senior Fellows of IndianRaga who have stood out for their technical as well as creative competence to deliver world-class collaborations. The panelists change every year, and are not aware of who their co-panelists are, to ensure as fair and unbiased a process as possible.

In each cycle, Fellows can expect to be part of at least two productions. This depends on how efficient and organized teams are, and IndianRaga is unable to guarantee a certain number of productions each Fellow can be part of.

In Online Fellowship, there is a limit of 2 pieces per each Fellow, whereas in Regular Fellowship they can participate up to 3 pieces, provided they are able to do justice to all.

No, we look for musicians and dancers who have deep knowledge and training in the genre they are applying in, and a willingness to collaborate and open their minds to other art forms. We do not need you to have any previous training or experience in collaboration. We believe that the Fellowship is designed to help you develop the ability to collaborate as long as you are strong in one genre and are open-minded.

There is no fixed policy on the creative aspect. Fellows are encouraged to come together and work with each other to create music that inspires them and that is relevant to audiences today. The IndianRaga team will work with you in advance to understand your ideas and help shape the ones that would be most feasible for the Fellowship productions. You can review the productions from past Fellowship years to get some more insight.

The IndianRaga Fellowship is an opportunity to feature in multiple productions in collaboration with different artist groups, in one shot! The program is designed for those who are looking to have an involved and diverse experience including feedback from experts, opportunity to meet and work with diverse artists, and of course the final productions, and joining a global network of advanced level performers. It also opens up the possibility of being invited to perform Fellowship pieces on prestigious live platforms.

The costs of attending the IndianRaga Fellowship are:

Application Fee: There is a non-refundable application fee.

Program Fee: Candidates who are offered a spot in the Fellowship will all pay a nominal program fee to cover a small portion of the Fellowship expenses. Details are given in the relevant fellowship page upon launch.

Travel, Boarding and Lodging: All candidates must support the costs of their travel to the Fellowship venue, accommodation, local transportation, meals and any other others costs of attending the Fellowship.  This is not applicable for online Fellowship.

Featuring in a music video involves a strong visual component and hence we expect candidates to focus on all aspects of performance and presentation style. We will be evaluating candidates on the visual aspect of their performance in addition to the technical and creative aspects. This includes but is not restricted to location and setting, lighting, interaction with camera/audience, body language, costume and style, make up and anything else that you think will enhance the audience experience.

In Collaboration Round, participants are expected to collaborate with other selected participants and come up with pieces that meet the standards of IndianRaga productions. IndianRaga provides a list of ideas, but the participants are free to modify or choose their own concept. They will be submitting the concept and its relevance to our panel for review and upon approval they will rehearse and submit a draft audio/video recording. At each stage, our creative panel will review and approve or approve with changes or reject.

The music piece should have at least 2 vocalists and dance piece should have at least 3 dancers.  We also don’t combine music and  dance.  Dance pieces will use pre-recorded music.  Teams need to ensure that the music  used in the dance pieces don’t have any  copyright issues.

No. Only those who accept the invitation to be a Fellow, and attend the Fellowship Recordings to feature in productions with us will be called IndianRaga Fellows.

Yes. IndianRaga invests a lot of money to produce high quality productions with Fellows, and the productions created at the Fellowship are owned by IndianRaga. In order to ensure consistency of quality and high standards, we also retain creative control on productions to decide which ideas are approved for production and which are not. There will be an MoU to this effect shared and signed with invited candidates as part of the onboarding process.

IndianRaga provides a list of ideas in the Collaboration Round that candidates can use or review to get inspired for other ideas. We will also connect all candidates with each other, however candidates are expected to be able to reach out and collaborate with other candidates without any handholding. Once ideas are formed and drafts are shared with us we do provide feedback to help refine them, but we are looking primarily for candidates who are able to collaborate and produce exciting work. For those looking for hand-holding and mentorship, we recommend the Raga Jam program – many of our Fellows have done a few Raga Jams before applying to the Fellowship and found the process helpful in aiding the collaboration process. In short, we provide the infrastructure to facilitate collaboration but there is no handholding or individual mentoring offered towards this process.

IndianRaga will release videos produced at the Fellowship on its YouTube and Facebook channels, with a view to maximizing visibility for Fellows and their collaborations. IndianRaga owns the content produced at the Fellowship and may license it to generate revenue that will be invested in supporting future IndianRaga Fellowships and making more opportunities available to IndianRaga Fellows.

In most cases this is true. However, this is subject to all participants submitting work of high standards including technical as well as performance content. After all videos are edited, the IndianRaga panel will review each piece to ensure they all live up to the standards expected by audiences on the IndianRaga and Raga Labs channels. If any piece is found to be sub-standard, we reserve the right to not release it at all.

No, the application fee is non-refundable.

Yes, here are the links to the recording of the sessions conducted for the 2017 Fellowship in USA.